A Deus Arc Machina
by Elzeta123
Summary: Jaune died, but at the same time, he didn't. Now, he has a new second life, filled with hatred, apathy and blood. But... Can his dead heart go back to the honest, caring and warm one that it once was? The answer is uncertain. This is the story of Arc; the murderer God. Rated M because of mature themes like gore and very dark humor. OOC Jaune.
1. Chapter 1: A Last Desire

Chapter 1: A Last Desire

Beta Reader: The Path of a Writer

* * *

One day, I left.

And nobody searched for me.

I left everything only to find peace and happiness for once in my life.

But one day, they found me.

And instead of finding happiness or relief, I felt a blade cutting my arms and my heart.

My friends betrayed me, and my family abandoned me.

But that doesn't matter anymore.

Now, I am impaled in the chest by a spear, to a tree, in a forest that I have never been in before, as the moonlight is the only thing left accompanying me in my loneliness as I bleed out.

That and the distant growls of Grimm that were hidden in the woods.

Well, I think this is it, I said to myself.

Did I have a good life? Mhmm… it could've been better. At least I could have had a girlfriend, and maybe have become a huntsman before getting attacked by my very own friends. And why? Because they had thought I'd betrayed them? The only bad thing I had done was having faked my transcripts, and was that worth it? Was that reason enough for them to do this to me? Was that even the reason or something else?

I don't know. I just don't know...

But, what can I do? I think that my life was never meant to be that of a Hunstman, despite of all my efforts…

Actually, it's really weird how calm I am now as I think over all of this. I should be angry, furious, sad, depressed or wanting to beat everyone… But, no, I'm here, thinking about life while being impaled like that time back in the Emerald forest, but this time, Pyrrha's spear rested near my heart. My arms were bleeding and I already had a shattered leg that, despite not bleeding, was hurting as all hell.

Then I noticed my sword, along with my shield, lying a few meters away from me, shining in the moonlight. Then I had an idea; I could try to pull the spear free and then take my sword and use it as a cane so that I could walk and, hopefully, find someone that could help me. I think that a town was near of here, but I'm not very sure.

Well, at least I can try, right? Not that I'm losing anything, after all…

I grabbed the spear with my right arm. It gone deep through my body, to the point of impaling the tree behind me, so, this was going to be a little difficult. Not only because I needed to do it with only a single arm, but because this was also going to be very painful, apart from being very dangerous.

Thank the Gods they hadn't impaled me at the top of the tree, because that would have been even harder to escape.

Well, here I go… one, two and…

With all of the remaining strength I had in my body, I managed to rip the spear out of me. Fortunately, it wasn't very long and the deed was quick, but that still didn't stop the pain and I let out a scream of agony. A scream that died in my throat once I bit my tongue. I didn't want the Grimm to notice that a human was still alive, so I tried to be as quiet as I could. When I get to a safer place, I will scream as loudly as I want.

I fell on the cold ground that was covered by my own blood. I tried to stand up, but my aforementioned shattered leg wouldn't move. It was fractured and broken in different places and I could see a little bit of my femur poking out in between muscle and skin.

My other leg wasn't in very good shape either. It was shaking a lot, but at least I could stand up.

It didn't last as I feel the moment I tried to move. Dragging myself, I reached my sword that was on the ground, supporting myself with it. This seemed to somewhat work, at least for the moment.

I think I had only moved a few meters from my initial position so far, but at least I was moving. My aura was really low though, not even a quarter of the red zone that Glynda would stop us at, and that was at about 30%. If Goodwitch was here, she would probably be surprised at how I was still alive. She always questioned that.

Actually, I think she never believed in me, or could figure out how I had survived through everything from the Emerald forest up to now. She never actually cared about me, despite me being a student that tried his best to improve.

Well, not that I cared about her anyways. She always made me fight with Cardin, knowing he was a better fighter than me at those times, and never wanting to put me against another student that was at my level… if there was anyone at my level. The academy's janitor was probably better than me.

Whatever.

So, I slowly 'walked' through the darkness of the forest, but, little by little, I could feel how I was losing strength.

Just a few more steps, I said to myself, just a-

And then my other leg gave out and bent so my entire my femur was exposed...

As I fell to the ground, it felt like it was in slow motion...

But I didn't feel anything. No Pain, no fear, no anger, just… a simple emptiness, nothing.

Little by little my face raced towards the ground, just like my sword had moments ago.

By this time I already knew it. That this was it.

The end of Jaune Arc, the man who simply wanted to become a huntsman and a hero, just like his family, but in the end, was only a weak and pathetic man.

Was it so hard to accomplish that dream of his?

This stupid destiny that wanted him to suffer, that wanted him to be hated and rejected.

That man, I, closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable end.

…..

But nothing happened.

Instead, a red and white light surrounded me. It resembled a humanoid form without legs and was floating in front of me, holding me by my shoulders.

"You are not going to die." It was an elegant voice of a lady, more elegant than Weiss' or any of the Atlesian people that I had heard before, "Now, you are safe with me."

I raised my head to meet her face, but it was covered by a red veil, hiding most of her head except for her long black hair.

"Who… Who are you?" I asked.

"At first, I was nothing, but then, when I awakened, I knew I just had one purpose; to help you, because you are a part of me, and I'm a part of you. I'm Lilith and I will accompany you."

I didn't understand what she was talking about, I just remained silent, until I realized she was carrying me through the forest along with my sword that was floating next to me.

"Where are you taking me?" Surprisingly, I was calm. I didn't feel like she was a threat to me. Instead, I feel she was a spirit that only wanted to help me.

"To a safer place where you can get better. Where you will never be defeated by the weaknesses of the flesh, and where you will never again feel the negative emotions like you had before, such as sadness, betrayal or pain."

Suddenly, I found myself in a part of the forest where everything was burning. There were just ashes of what before was life. And then, I noticed seven crosses where seven people were being crucified. They were unconscious, with black blindfolds around their eyes.

Those people were the friends that betrayed me; Ruby, Nora, Yang, Weiss, Blake, Ren and Pyrrha. Every single one of them was naked, with nothing to cover themselves.

I knew that I should have felt pity, sadness, or something, but...

No.

I felt nothing.

The image was, for me, the same as watching a wall of fresh paint, drying in the sunlight..

I turned my sights away from the view and I asked.

"What are you going to do with them?"

She chuckled.

"I don't care about them, that's the job of another spirit that came with me."

"And that job is?" I asked, curiously.

"Punish all the species of this world because of their sins. Starting with them." She pointed at them. "You see, this world was accumulating a lot of sins during all these centuries. And it was time to do a purge." she smiled "But now, it's waiting, so I can save you."

"Save me… Why?"

"You have a strong soul, Jaune Arc. Despite everything that happened in your life, you always wanted to see the bright side, until, well, they stabbed you." I slowly nodded, and then she resumed "That's why I wanted to save you, and make you something better, something more interesting than a mere hero."

"Something… better than a hero?"

She nodded "Making you… into a God. Maybe even into something greater, if we can."

I saw her smile through the veil and I knew it was a smile that I could trust.

Then, a bright portal appeared in front of her.

"We don't have much time, Jaune Arc, the other spirit would get angry if we made it wait more than necessary. All the questions you have. I will answer them later, but now, before we leave, I need to know. What's your last desire?"

"Last... Desire?"

"Exactly. A thing you want from this world, and from this universe. Tell me what you want, and I will concede it to you."

A thing I want… that's hard, I always wanted a lot of things.

Becoming a hero.

Saving someone.

That my friends would be with me forever.

Getting a girlfriend.

That my parents were proud of me.

Being happy at least once…

I turned around and saw the people that I thought were my friends, waiting for their punishment.

Then I thought of my family, thinking that they are going to receive the same punishment, or worse, like the rest of this world, like the spirit said.

If that's going to happen, then...

"I want to forget them." I turned my head to look at her.

"Huh?" she said, curiously.

"I want to forget who they were. I don't want to remember that they were my friends, or who were my family, and that also includes me. I don't want to remember who I was. If I'm going to have a new opportunity to live, I want to start from zero."

"Are you sure about your words?"

"Yes" I turned my head to see them once again.

I'm sorry guys. I know that we had good moments together, but those moments are gone, and I don't want to remember them when I will be away from this world, and possibly, not coming back.

It's selfish, I know, but I think it's the right thing to do.

After all, you were the ones who stabbed me and impaled me to a tree in the first place.

"It will be done, but first, I need to ask, with what name do you want to be addressed in your next life?"

I didn't need to think about it.

"I think… Arc, just Arc. I always liked my surname, if I'm honest, and I always wanted to show everyone that I deserved it. So, if I'm going to become a god like you said, I want to show everyone, even the others gods, that I'm one. That I'm an Arc."

"Then, it's done, Arc."

And with that, a red and pink essence seeped from her hands and surrounded me. Now, the only thing I could see was those colors until my mind went blank.

I found myself in a forest in which I had never been before, with a red spirit holding me by my shoulders.

"Where… Where am I?"

The spirit smiled.

"Soon, that question won't be necessary, Arc. The only thing that you will need to know is that there's a new world waiting for you, and nothing will stop you."

I felt how she was moving me towards a bright portal, and I could notice a few things.

I felt how I was being healed. I felt how the pain disappeared and how it was being replaced by comfort. And then I noticed that I wasn't feeling my heartbeats.

My heart stopped beating, but I was still alive.

In spite of everything, I felt at peace, and I felt grateful to be in her arms.

"What's your name?" I asked.

She giggled.

"I have had a lot of names since I was born, but for you, Arc, you can call me Lilith."

Finally, we passed through the portal, and my eyes widened when I saw where I was now.

It was the exact representation of a Paradiso.

"Welcome, Arc, to a new life." She said with a smile, and I smiled a bit too.

The portal slowly closed behind me and I could hear the moans and screams of pain that were coming from its other side.

But I didn't care.

Now, the only thing I cared for was this new place.

And what was waiting for me…

900 years later.

"So, what was this place called again?" I stepped over the dark ground of the world, leaving footprints from my black boots.

"Remnant." Lilith told me. This time, she wasn't next to me, but inside of me, next to my soul.

"Remmant… I think I heard that name before… it was near Innsmouth, right?"

"No." She answered "But we have been here before, back when we met for the first time."

"Ohh, now I remember."

A lot of things happened after that. Now I didn't have those ugly clothes anymore. I had replaced them with a gray shirt, black pants and a long black coat that Lilith had given me.

Also, I had all my limbs healed and restored, despite the scars that remained on my hands and face.

One of them, on my left hand, had the form of a rainbow.

And my hair was now a little bit longer. Despite that, it was still scraggy, and that's how I always liked it.

"But, the thing is, why is the ground so dark?"

"This is a different Remnant, Arc. This world was altered and it became a new one."

"I see." I nodded "Then, again, what is it that I'm looking for in this world?"

"If I remember right, like I always do, there's a so called goddess of darkness that is messing with the equilibrium, so, the mission is to eliminate her."

"Alright. So, the ground is dark because we are in her territory?"

"Exactly."

"Well, this is going to be interesting." I said while whistling a song. One that I'd continue whistling while fighting.

And soon, I found myself in front of what looked to be a castle surrounded by darks lakes from which weird creatures of darkness were crawling out.

I kept looking at the Dantesque view for a few minutes, until I took a deep breath.

"Well..." I began as a slight smile also began forming on my face.

"Time to kill everything and everyone again."

* * *

 **Author notes:**

 **Hello, once again, dear reader, welcome to another fic of mine, this time a more mature one with Jaune as protagonist.**

 **I know it looks like one of those fics were Jaune is betrayed, but trust me, this is not a fic about Jaune wanting revenge. Let's just say it will be an adventure where Jaune must find who he really is. There's going to be new words with a new different Remmant, new stories about our characters, dumb shit, dark moments and probably lewd things too.**

 **In this fic, Jaune will have great powers, but he won't be the kind hearted guy that he is. He will be a monster. That can change, but in a near future.**

 **Also, there will be a good amount of songs in this fic, so get ready, because I won't put the names (Unless is a song that doesn't have lyrics)**

 **Also, there's going to be dark humor that can be considered offensive, so don't blame me please is just humor thank you!**

 **I hope you liked it, and see you in the next chapter.**


	2. Chapter 2: Feelin Good

**Chapter 2: Feelin Good**

 **[Disclaimer: In the next chapters, along with this one, there's going to be some jokes than can be offensive to certain groups (You know, jokes about racism, sexism, etc.) so if you don't like them, well, there's other fics that you can read. And don't you say you haven't been warned]**

* * *

I was approaching the castle without caring about the creatures that had already noticed my presence.

I kept whistling a song while I had my hands in the pockets of my coat, not caring about the situation I was in.

The situation felt like a Muslim entering an ordinary airport. Those creatures were watching me with inquisitive red eyes.

"Hey.", I said.

"Yes?", Lilith asked.

"This is the only mission I have to do?"

"Actually, there's more, but this is the main mission. But if you want, you could explore the world and see what other things could appear."

"I like that idea.", I said, "Well, I wonder what's up here becau-"

Then I suddenly got interrupted when a creature that looked like an elephant obstructed my walk.

The creature said nothing and just kept staring at me.

"What?", I asked it, "What the fuck do you want?"

It kept staring at me, some black smoke coming out of its mouth.

"Do you mind, Dumbo? I was having a conversation here!"

Then I noticed that the other creatures were surrounding me; there were more elephants, wolves, gorillas and was that a dragon that I could see in the distance?

Now that's interesting.

"Lilith."

"Yes?"

"Music, please."

Then a song started to play very slowly, and little by little it was starting to get quicker.

 _ **Birds flying high**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

 _ **Ah, that's better.**_

 _ **Sun in the sky**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

Suddenly, I realized the creatures had gotten a little closer at me.

I ignored them as I preferred to close my eyes and enjoy the song.

 _ **Breeze driftin' on by**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

 _ **It's a new dawn**_

 _ **It's a new day**_

 _ **It's a new life**_

 _ **For me**_

I could hear how one of the wolves starting running at me, jumping with its claws ready to kill.

 _ **And I'm feeling**_

I opened my eyes and from inside my coat, I took out a gray, rusty gun.

 _ **Good**_

Bang.

And with that, the wolf fell to the ground, headless, and soon disappeared into nothingness.

It was enough to make the others angry, and enough for me to start having fun.

The elephant and the gorillas roared, meanwhile, the Dragon kept staring, still in the distance.

The elephant charged at me, but before it knew it, I had dodged it, having turned my body to ash and then reappeared behind it..

By that time the singer had resumed singing again.

 _ **Fish in the sea**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

 _ **Another shot left my gun, and like the wolf, its head exploded.**_

 _ **River running free**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

I shot three more of the animals that were running at me as I made my way towards the castle.

Blossom on the tree

Another shot, this time at a gorilla, in its chest.

You know how I feel

I twirled once as I walked and I felt as if the sun's rays were going through my veins

 ** _It's a new dawn_**

 ** _It's a new day_**

 ** _It's a new life_**

 ** _For me_**

I chuckled at the pathetic view of the bodies that were fading.

 _ **And I'm feeling good**_

Then I noticed at least three elephants furiously charging towards me.

I raised my left hand and and my rainbow-shaped scar began glowing in a maroon light.

 _ **Dragonfly out in the sun, you know what I mean, don't you know?**_

I fired a few more shots, not at the elephants but the few wolves that seemed to be rushing at me.

 _ **Butterflies all havin' fun, you know what I mean**_

I smirked at the dragon that was still just watching the scene before it.

I closed my eyes, feeling the steps of the furious elephants getting closer.

 _ **Sleep in peace when the day is done, that's what I mean**_

 _ **And this old world is a new world**_

 _ **And a bold world**_

 _ **For me**_

I moved my left hand, and suddenly, the earth moved with it and launched the elephants in the air.

 _ **For me!**_

The elephants fell a few meters behind me, but I didn't care. I just kept moving.

The instrumental came back and I decided to once more play with the land for a bit.

Basically, I was creating a miniature Armageddon within this area.

I created large spears of dark rock in the once plain and empty territory, sometimes impaling some of the dark creatures that kept growing less and less in numbers.

I was also destroying the lakes of darkness that were in my path.

That's when the dragon approached me.

Exactly as the instrumental ended and the singing resumed.

It doesn't have any chance now.

 _ **Stars when you shine**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

It roared.

I just stared at it stoically.

 _ **Scent of the pine**_

 _ **You know how I feel**_

It blew a breath of pure darkness at me.

But before it knew it, I was already gone.

 _ **Oh freedom is mine**_

Suddenly, the dragon was impaled through its stomach.

 _ **And I know how I feel**_

 _ **It's a new dawn**_

Its right wing was cut off.

 _ **It's a new day**_

The other wing followed.

The earth also began to move again.

 _ **It's a new life!**_

Its tail was cut off.

It roared, though not with anger, but with pain and desperation.

Then I appeared with Crocea Mors.

And I sang.

 _ **It's a new dawn**_

I jumped.

It's a new day

My sword was aimed for its throat.

All the while, new spears had begun sprouting around the area, and in the heat of the moment, I had begun destroying the castle.

 _ **It's a new life!**_

And finally, the dragon lost its head.

The rainbow on my left hand began glowing brighter.

I smirked as I sang louder while chaos reigned everywhere, bearing my back to the castle as it was being sundered.

 _ **IT'S A NEW DAWN**_

 _ **IT WAS A NEW DAY**_

 _ **IT WAS A NEW LIFE**_

 _ **IT'S A NEW LIFE**_

 _ **FOR ME!**_

I moved my hand, as if directing an orchestra, creating more spears and scars throughout the land.

Suddenly, a tall, pale woman opened the doors of the castle, looking very angry.

" **ALRIGHT, WHAT IS GOING ON-** "she began with a terrifying and deep voice, but she couldn't finish whatever she was going to say.

Why?

Because I had shot her. Right in the mouth. And my bullet that was made of pure light and antimatter had passed right through her throat and disappeared in the distance behind her.

 _ **And I'm feeling… Good**_

I watched her body slowly fall to the ground.

I raised an eyebrow.

 ** _I'm feeling so good_**

I smiled.

 _ **I feel so good**_

I approached her body before it could evaporate like the rest of the creatures I saw before.

I took her by her head.

 _ **I feel so good...**_

And then I tore it off, it in my grasp as the rest of the body slowly faded away.

"Easy.", I smiled when I met her eyes which were dark and without any signs of life, "This was the goddess that we needed to kill?"

"Affirmative."

"Well, the pet dragon was more interesting to kill than her.", I said when I turned around and saw the carnage I had created all about the area.

"Now, what am I going to do with this?", I asked, referring to the head.

"Mhhm, now that I think about it, there's a person in this world that would be interested in that head."

"Really?"

"Affirmative. It's a god who was cursed a long time ago."

"Cursed?"

"Yeah. Because he was unable to stop this goddess that has massacred thousands upon thousands during her lifetime. Neither he nor anyone else could stop her, till now."

"So, we are going to show him this head?"

"Yes and if it's possible, he can help us with our next mission."

"A new mission? What is it?", I asked as I stored the fresh head of the goddess inside my coat.

"It was something that I didn't understand until now. It's about some relics that are scattered around this world."

"Let me guess, we are going to take them home so they will be in a safer place?"

"Exactly!"

"Well, I can't complain with that. A mission is a mission.", I started to walk away from this now chaotic area, "So, where are going now?"

"We need to go to a kingdom called Vale, more specifically to an academy of which our target is a director."

"What's his name?"

"Ozpin. That's his name."

"Hmm, well, I hope it's his birthday because I'm sure he will be happy to see this."

I noticed that the darkness on the ground was starting to fade and was slowly being replaced by green grass.

"By the way, how were those creatures created? They didn't have any visible sexual organs."

"They don't reproduce. They are born from the fears and negative emotions of the species that live here, formed within those lakes you destroyed several minutes ago.

"Ooh, so that means I won't see anymore of those creatures?"

"There are obviously going to be more in our travels, but now that we left them without a spawning area, as well as without a ruler to lead them or recreate the lakes,, they are going to slowly decrease in numbers until they all inevitably disappear, ending their species."

I whistled at that, "So, that means I fucked up an entire species?"

"Yep."

"Sweet.", I deadpanned, "So, that's how being a part of the Schutzstaffel feels like."

Ah, who could have imagined it.

Another mission that was easily completed and now another follow up mission that I have to do.

Who could have guessed that all that was necessary to fix everything was a single light and antimatter bullet through the evil goddess' throat.?

Like always, the most unexpected but awesome thing happens to me.

And that was what made my life great.

"Well, Ozpin… I hope you have an hour to fit me in, not that I'd care if you didn't, of course.", I spoke out loud.

"Do you want me to open a portal?"

"No thank you, Lilith. I prefer to walk.", I said while I was staring at the ground as its color changed to one with more life to it.

"So... Care to explain to me what this world is?"

"What do you want to know?"

"Who is in charge? You know, the one who gives the orders around here."

"Not too sure... Actually, there are four kingdoms; Vale, Vacuo, Atlas and Mistral. There's also a continent that is getting stronger as we speak in both matters such as politics and its army. It's called Menagerie."

"This Menagerie, it is something that we should see later."

"It'll probably be something we need to visit."

"Then it is settled. Any names that I have to remember?"

Lilith remained silent for a few seconds, probably searching through some things.

"Remember these names;

Ghira Belladonna,

Sienna Khan Belladonna,

Illia Amitola,

Li Ren,

Taiyang Xiao Long,

Arthur Watts,

Tyrian Callows,

And Bartholomew Oobleck."

"Names of people that I need to kill later?", I asked.

"Names of people that would be interesting to know more about as we go deeper in this world."

"I see… well then, I better stop wasting time and get going to Vale.", I said in a more relaxed tone.

Then a thought occurred to me.

"Hey, did I do something good today?"

"Why?"

"Because when I killed that goddess, the land seemingly began to heal."

"I suppose that can be considered a good action. After all, you killed a goddess of darkness."

"And nobody was a witness of that."

"What? Did you want everyone to see you as a hero?"

I chuckled at that.

"Please, Lilith.", I said as I put my hands in my coat's pockets once again and I gazed at the sun which was currently at its highest point.

"I will never be a hero."


	3. Chapter 3: Destination

**Chapter 3: Destination**

 **Beta Reader: The Path of a Writer**

* * *

Day had changed to night and night to day once again.

Despite at least a day of walking, I wasn't tired.

And how could I be? I have so much stamina in my body that it's stupid!

Also, I have been busy talking to Lilith.

"Anyways, how is your mark, Arc?"

"Great, as always. But I think I could look for some new powers."

"You have a lot of powers already, Arc.", she giggled, "What else do you want?"

"Hmm...", I thought for a minute, "I would like to get some ice based powers, or electric ones. They would be a lot of help if I need to hack something"

"Perhaps you could look for some new weapons this time."

"New weapons? Preposterous! Most of my enemies don't need more than one bullet to be killed. Why would I look for new weapons?"

"A little more versatility wouldn't be bad."

"I'd say it's pointless. I just need my sword, my gun and my powers to finish a mission, that's how it has always worked and-Oh, look!"

After a long time of walking through different forests, I finally found one of the best places that I could imagine.

A bar, a few meters in front of me.

"Just when I was starting to feel thirsty.", I clapped my hands and smiled.

"Sure, why not.", Lilith sighed and became silent once again.

I approached the door and opened it, but instead of the noise of drunk people having fun or drinks being served, there was just silence, the inside being but a dark room.

I walked a few steps until I found the light switch to turn on the lights.

Once they were on, a new sight was before of me.

Dead bodies, more specifically, a pile of bodies that were dismembered in the center of the bar and there was blood everywhere; on the stools, on the tables, on the walls, even on the light switch that I had just flicked.

I walked further in while in silence, noticing that the bodies were of humans, just humans, and not any signs of tails or other extra features on their bodies.

Then I noticed that on one of the walls, there was a message written in blood.

 **SINNERS OF THIS WORLD, FEAR THE ROSE**

"Somebody has been busy before we got here.", asserted Lilith.

"Yeah… Probably is something abou-Hey, look, whisky!", I approached one of the tables where a bottle of whisky sat, still intact, despite all the blood that covered it.

"You were saying?"

"Oh, well, I was thinking they were leaving a kind of message.", I opened the bottle and continued, "Probably the work of a cult that is trying to invoke a god or trying to impose their own rules on this world, something like that.", I took a sip from the bottle and approached the wall, "The blood is still somewhat fresh, so that means that whoever did this is still nearby"

"It makes sense, in a way… But, Rose? What does it mean?"

"Hmm… No idea.", I took another sip, "It can be the name of the organization or the name of whoever did this.", I sighed, "Though there are more important questions, like, where Beacon is."

"Look in that guy's pocket."

"What guy?"

"The one who has his guts spilled out and brown shorts."

I noticed the mentioned guy that was next to the pile of bodies; his stomach was cut in half and his head was gone.

Whoever did this, they really did some interesting work. The guy probably suffered a lot before dying, just like the rest of the people here.

I searched through one of his pockets and inside of it, there was a folded piece of paper covered in blood.

I opened it, and it was a map.

"If I'm not wrong, my senses tell that we are here.", Said Lilith, and a red point was marked on the map, "And that Beacon is…. There!", then she pointed at another marked position on the map.

Great, we are on another continent...

More precisely, one that was called Mistral.

And Beacon was on the neighbouring one, towards the left, that was called Vale.

"I need a boat."

"I can make another portal."

"Save that energy for later. You already made one to bring us here and I don't want to exhaust you."

She sighed, "Fine."

I pocketed the map in my large coat.

"By the way, what are we going to do with this place?", Asked Lilith.

"This was obviously a message, not for us, but for someone else out there, maybe for a big group. This was an obvious genocide, but with a purpose; they wanted it to be discovered by someone, but we had arrived first at this place."

"So, what's the plan?"

Suddenly, my left hand was in flames.

"I'll just burn the message.", I said, throwing some flames at the pile of bodies, "At least it will be a good cremation."

The fire quickly started to grow bigger and bigger, and it had begun to spread through the wooden floor of the bar.

I turned around, towards the exit, "Anyways, it wasn't a message to me."

Lilith sighed, "So, what's the plan then?"

"We need to find a boat."

"There's some port to the east of here.", she said.

I left the bar and stared at how the flames of my power were spreading through the wooden structure, some black smoke beginning to escape through the door and the windows.

More than a tragic sight, it was a really sad sight.

These people, they looked like the shady type, but they were likely doing what they could to get by. Even the owners, way out here in the middle of nowhere, were probably just struggling to subside.

And then someone had just killed them, marking them as 'sinners' and leaving their ravaged bodies in a pile, just like a ton of dirty clothes.

And then there's me who just burned the bar, just to destroy whatever message it was meant to send.

I sighed and closed my eyes for a moment and when I opened them again, I took a little sip from the whisky.

Once again, People dies unfairly…

"Well, nothing new under the sun, I guess."

I turned around to meet the green forest that would probably be affected once the flames grew a bit more, but by that time I won't be here to appreciate it.

I slowly walked away in silence, with just the sound of the flames intensifying behind me.

"Lilith, turn on some music, please.", I asked.

"Sure."

Then a nice song began playing.

 _ **There ain't no grave can hold my body down**_

 _ **There ain't no grave can hold my body down**_

I somewhat smiled, "Thank you, Lilith."

"Anything for you, Arc.", I felt a bit of joy in her words.

And so I kept on walking, losing myself between the scenery of the trees and the music, but always knowing where I have to go.

 _ **When I hear that trumpet sound I'm gonna rise right out of the ground**_

 _ **Ain't no grave can hold my body down…**_

[…]

It was night again and I found myself staring at the shattered moon that was illuminating my path through the woods.

"Why is the moon like that anyways?", I asked out loud.

"I wish I could answer you, Arc, but this world has some effect on my powers of omniscience."

"Oh… Speaking of this world, you said that I was here once, right?"

"A long time ago."

"And it had the same problems as the past ones I've seen and been to?"

"Every world has problems, Arc. The only difference is that this world was restarted a long time ago because of the corruption of the hearts of the human and faunus races."

"Faunus? What are those?"

"A type of species that looks like humans, but they have certain animal traits, like tails or an extra pair of ears, among other things."

"Ah, so they are just furries, I get it!"

"Well, you can put it that way, but I don't think it would be a good idea to call them that."

"Well, I won't ask for their opinion, so I will call them furries.", I snickered.

"However, the thing is that the restart, unfortunately, didn't work very well and Remnant became in-"

"A darker version?", I suggested.

"That can be correct, yes."

I stopped next to the last tree that was on top of the hill I was currently on, and I could see the port from here.

What I saw was, like, four warships being loaded with what looked to be some ammunition and weapon crates, and maybe ones with gasoline.

There were also soldiers, I think, that were wearing clothes in white and blue colors. Some of them were carrying boxes that had the words 'danger' and 'explosive' on them, written in large red letters.

"Great!", I said to myself, "Not only aren't there any available boats that can take me to Vale, but there are also soldiers that are getting ready for a war."

"How do you know it will be a war?"

"Just a little hunch.", I sighed, "I'm not going to wait for a boat to appear anymore. Lilith, please, open a portal to Vale"

"With pleasure."

A few seconds later, a red portal appeared behind me. I turned around and I saw what looked like a city through it.

I passed through the portal, leaving behind the soldiers and the black warships, and now I found myself in a city in the middle of the night.

"Good. Now, where's Beacon?"

"Like, 1350 feet to the north."

Alright, not that far away, but still, I should wait for the sun to rise again.

I could sleep though, but I don't need it and I don't like it. However, I didn't know why, but I felt kind of sleepy, something that doesn't happen very often.

I was thinking about how my lack of sleep wasn't really affecting me during all these years when I found an open store.

The name was quite weird for my tastes, so I decided to take a look, maybe with that I could waste a little bit of time.

I entered, and the first thing I noticed was a large number of display cases that had different kinds of dust in different colors within them.

Weird, but whatever.

The clerk gave me an indifferent look, I think, I couldn't read his expression very well. He was just an old bag that mumbled something and I just ignored him.

I walked through the aisle for a while when Lilith spoke to me.

"Hey! Look at that magazine!"

I turned around and noticed a magazine about weapons, the ones on the cover being red.

I raised an eyebrow at that, "Seriously? A magazine? You know I hate magazines!"

I grabbed it anyways.

"But look at those weapons, maybe you can look for a new one and change yours for once in a while."

"Why would I need new weapons?", I said as I opened the magazine, only to find dumb looking weapons inside of it, "And look at this! Who would want to use something so stupid, like these gauntlets that are also shotguns?"

"A little bit of variety wouldn't be bad."

"I don't need variety, I need efficiency! And that is something that I already have!", I said as I turned through some more pages, "And why is everything in this magazine also a gun though?"

"People here are used to combining melee and ranged weapons into just one so they wouldn't need to swap them in the middle of a battle."

"What's so wrong about swapping weapons?"

"It requires more time."

"That's the fun part! It gives a little bit of tension, and if you hide the range weapon, the enemy wouldn't know you have one until it's too late.", I started to get annoyed at the magazine, so I just burned it, and it became ashes, "I wouldn't be surprised if that thing wasn't a gun too, to be honest."

Suddenly, I felt something touch my shoulder.

I turned around and saw a big, tall guy with black clothes like mine, but in a bit more of a gangster style. He also had red sunglasses and a hat, as well as a red tie.

I also noticed that he had a red sword in his hands.

"Alright, fella, give me everything you have in that nice coat of yours.", he told me.

I simply raised an eyebrow at him, "Wait, are you…. robbing me?"

The guy seemed to hesitate a little at my question, "Well… yes."

I stared at him in silence and slowly approached him, keeping my eyes locked with his the whole time.

"You're a fucking idiot, right?" I said.

He frowned at me and clenched his sword tighter, but before he could do anything, I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face against the ceramic floor.

Next thing I did was take out my gun and aim it at him.

3 shots; head, abdomen and heart; Father, Son and Spirit.

And then, a small river of blood was the result of my execution.

I think the sound alerted others inside of the building.

"What was that?!", I heard the voice of another man yelling in the distance.

"No idea. Hey, Bill! What happened back there?", another man asked.

I decided to show myself to these gentlemen, maybe with this I could kill some more time until the sun came up.

I looked at them; there were six men that had the same clothes as the one who I had killed moments ago, except one that instead had white clothes, ginger hair and was currently holding the clerk by his collar.

"There's no Bill", I said; gun still in my hand, "Well, not anymore..."

The white clothed man dropped the clerk to the floor and pointed at me with a cane, "Who are you?"

"I can ask the same.", I shrugged, "I was just reading a stupid magazine made by someone with Klinefelter syndrome, when one of your men, I said one of your men, because I suspect you're the leader, wanted to rob me, so I killed him."

My words received mixed reactions. Some of the men were shaking, probably in anger, others just stared at me, and the ginger with a cigar smugly grinned towards me.

He made a signal with his cane to the men to stop their approach towards me.

"Wow, just look at that, a new huntsman that dedicates himself to killing people."

"Who said I'm a huntsman? I'm a murderer."

"You don't need to tell me that twice, kid.", he chuckled, "I would like to fight with you, really, but now, my hands are a little busy at the moment."

I looked at the container that was behind him; instead of money, there was the dust that I saw earlier in those display cases.

"Drugs, instead of money? And here you looked like someone who had more class."

He chuckled, "Thank you, kid, but no, this is not a drug. Although, my clients right now wants lots of it so bad that they might just be addicted to it."

I might've been able to ignore this robbery, but it was obvious that I wouldn't be getting out of here without a fight, and by fight, I meant multiple murders. Besides, I'm now interested in that weird dust.

"Wait!", I said, "I'm also interested in that dust."

"Oh yeah? Well, you are not the only one.", he said "A shame this is not the right place to trade."

"Who said I want to trade?", I aimed my gun at him, "Give me that dust. Now!"

He slightly laughed before telling me, "You're a great comedian, kid. If you weren't bugging me right now, I might've even taken you along for your performances.", then he glanced at the black clothed men, "Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to avenge your comrade that was killed by this blonde idiot?"

The black clothed men nodded silently, muttering some curses towards me.

I noticed that their swords suddenly changed to shotguns, and now, they were aiming them at me.

I also noticed the clerk that was frozen in place, looking at me and slightly trembling.

I signaled him to duck under the table while still aiming at the ginger man with a white hat.

"Tell me something, kid, what's your name?"

"Arc.", I simply said, "just Arc."

"A nickname? Just delightful.", he groaned, "Well, I hope you have fun with these men."

"Like your mother does every night?", I smiled, and I felt Lilith gasping inside of my mind.

" _You didn't!"_

" _Oh, I did!"_

The ginger looked angry, and that only made my smile grow wider.

"Alright, kill hi-"

"Stop!", I said, and the mark on my hand glowed in a sky blue color.

The ginger man stopped his speech, and just like the rest of the world that surrounded me, stopped completely.

Alright, five men, five bullets, plus one to this ginger's right leg.

I aimed at one of the men and I shot at the head.

But the bullet didn't reach its destination; it just stood there, in the air, like a picture.

I then shot towards the other man, leaving the bullet of light and antimatter in the air like the first one, in the direction of his mouth.

Third shot to the left and to the forehead.

Fourth shot, this time to the throat. Maybe this one can survive, maybe…

And a fifth shot at the nose of the last man that was near the ginger one.

Quite the wonderful job, I said to myself.

Now, to finish this…

I approached the ginger man and I took out the cigar from his mouth and smiled at his face that was still unaware of what will happen once I let time resume.

I shot in the direction of his left ankle, leaving a bullet of light suspended in the air.

Then, I returned to my former position as I put the cigar in my mouth.

" _Time is what keeps everything from happening at once._ ", said Lilith in a solemn voice.

A shame I never met whoever said that phrase…

I raised my hand to my face level, my mark already glowing again.

"Continue!" I commanded.

And so, time went back to its normal cycle.

"hi-AGH!", the ginger man shouted in pain as he fell to the floor.

The bullets resumed their trajectory, and then, the men were shot, leaving trails of blood on the walls and floor.

I just hope the clerk that was hidden under the table didn't get covered in any of that.

"You weren't expecting that, were you?", I mocked as I approached him as he groaned in pain, holding his right ankle.

"W-What was that?!", he yelled at me, "W-What kind of semblance do you have?!"

I didn't meet his eyes. Instead, I passed by him and opened the black container where the dust was stored.

Inside of it were a few bottles of this dust.

I opened one with red dust in it and inspected it.

Well, I can say it looks like dust…

I sniffed it… also smells like dust, but with an interesting spicy smell to it.

I took a little of it in my hand, and I ate it.

It burned in my throat, something that I was expecting, but nothing too special.

I closed it again, and turned to the ginger man that was now slowly crawling towards the exit.

"You're leaving a trail.", I said, pointing at the blood that was on the floor, "You must be desperate to crawl like this, kiddo."

The man didn't answer. He was panting, his hat no longer on his head, and I noticed that he was a bit pale.

I slowly approached him and crouched down next to him.

I grabbed the back of his neck and turned him towards me. Now he was looking at me with a desperate face.

"W-What do you want from me?"

I took out the cigar and blew the smoke in his face.

The man slightly coughed.

"I'm not here because of a reward like a new weapon, money or new sluts for the harem I don't have.", I stated in a serious voice, "I'm here because if I don't do it, no one will. If I need to kill, I will kill. If I need to protect, I will protect, and trust me when I said that last part usually doesn't happen very often."

I took a puff of the cigar before continuing.

"This is how I have been for at least the last 900 years, son, and no petite ginger man who has clothes cleaner than his own life along with his now dead 'comrades' is going to stop me from doing my missions.", I slightly smiled as I stood up again, leaving the ginger man shaking in his own misery and blood.

I took the small container and I stored it inside of my large coat.

"You… You're a monster!", he stated, voice trembling.

I smirked, "Do you think I'm a monster? Why? Because I killed the comrades you didn't even care for in cold blood?"

"We didn't do anything! We just wanted to take the dust!"

"You wanted to steal. That's enough for me."

"I didn't hurt anybody!"

"That is not what your soul says.", I told him, "Or do you want to remember when you killed your own father because he beat your mother?"

This time, he locked eyes with me. He looked terrified, "H-How-"

"You don't need to know how I know those things, Roman. What matters now is that you are a sinner, and that you will pay!", I took out my sword and I proceeded to slowly walk towards him, "Maybe this isn't the finale that you expected for your life, but I think it's the one you deserve."

"No…"

"You're a liar, a cheater, a flatterer, a murderer, a traitor…", I slightly chuckled, "I like you. I use to do those things too. But, the difference is that I don't care too much about it, like you saw before."

"G-Get away from me!", he resumed his crawling towards the exit, this time a bit faster.

"I'm a monster, I admit it. But because I need to be one, that's my job. I'm a monster because I am no human, Roman Torchwick."

I began playfully twirling my sword while walking.

The poor man was trying to escape, but instead, he was just losing more and more blood, it now painted across the floor.

"Do you want to know what I am, in fact?"

A little bit faster, I approached him and kicked his stomach.

He shouted in pain, and now he was lying on his back.

"I'm a god, Roman, but not a good one, as you can see. There're a lot of gods between the universes. There are good gods and there are evil gods. But I'm not evil or good. I'm a murderer, a wanderer, a mercenary."

The poor bastard coughed out some blood before then speaking, "If you kill me, you are going to regret it! I know very dangerous people and they will search for you, only to kill you!"

I grabbed him by his neck, tightly, and I raised him into the air. The man began to choke and tried to pull off my hand, but he couldn't.

"Then, let the games begin."

He looked confused and terrified, and I just gave him a simple smile before I threw him in the air and then sliced him in half with my sword.

Now, the body was spraying way more blood than before.

Great.

My hands were covered in blood, just as my sword and part of my sleeves.

I didn't care. The blood is going to fade after a couple of minutes anyway.

I put away my sword back into my coat, and I took out the vial of red dust.

I looked at it for a couple of minutes in silence; the color was really beautiful, like the fresh blood from a beautiful deer from the sacred forests that were near Mount Olympus.

"Red… What a beautiful color…"

Suddenly, I noticed a small ray of light that wasn't coming from any lamps, but instead, from the outside.

The sky had become clearer and I realized that it was finally morning.

I sighed in relief; at least I won't need to be in this store anymore.

I walked towards the door and opened it.

I breathed in a bit of fresh air and then began walking in the direction of the street.

"Remind me, where's the academy, Lilith?"

"Sure.", she said, "Do you want a song during our trip?"

I smirked, "Sure. I would like to hear _Fly Me To The Moon_ by _Sinatra._ "

And just as I said that, the sound of a drums started to play, and then the singer began singing.

 _Fly me to the moon. Let me play among the stars..._

I smiled a little more, not caring about the red footprints that I was leaving on the street, and not caring about the clerk that was possible still hidden under the table, fearing for his life.

It was only me, Lilith, the actual mission and the lovely song that was accompanying us as the sun rose higher and more stores started to open their doors.

I soon found myself looking at a tower in the distance.

And without a doubt, I knew that I was walking towards my destination.


	4. Chapter 4: Beacon

**Chapter 4: Beacon**

 **Beta Reader: The Path of a Writer**

* * *

It was around ten o'clock when I found myself in some kind of technological transport. Now, the weather was a little bit warmer and more sunny, and I also noticed teens with stupid looking weapons passing beside me every once in a while.

By Lilith's advice (and concern for our mission doesn't get fucked up, or at least not too much) I crashed in one group of teenagers so I can use this helicopters or elevator things (I think it's called an airship) that will transport me to the academy without using my powers and go unnoticed for a while.

I just hoped nobody wanted me to show them any transcripts that I obviously didn't have.

I sighed as I stared at the world that was outside of the window. The view was quite beautiful, but not as much as other landscapes that I had seen in my previous missions.

Fortunately, nobody came to talk to me and I went unnoticed like Lilith and I wanted.

The world seemed to be silent until I heard a voice, turning to see a hologram of a news reporter.

On it, were the words 'Breaking news!'

"…This morning, the infamous thief known as Roman Torchwick, one of the most wanted criminals in all four kingdoms, was found dead along with five unknown men in a Dust store within the kingdom of Vale. The subject was shot in one of his ankles and then was brutally decapitated with what the forensic doctors presumed to be a sword. The police have yet to find any leads. The witness, the store's shopkeeper, couldn't identify who the attacker was, stating that everything happened too fast. Could this have possibly been the work of a new semblance? Will this be the emergence of a dangerous assassin who will terrorize Vale's populace, or just a settling of scores between gangs?"

Well, if I have to be honest, I like the sound of the first one, though I'm not trying to terrorize nobody.

At least not yet.

"In other news, new attacks from the White Fang were reported in the kingdom of Mistral. This time, a kamikaze attack caused by an unidentified faunus who had attached a bomb to himself and detonated it in the middle of one of the most populated districts of the kingdom. Fortunately, there haven't been any deaths reported up to this moment. The special service of Mistral, as well as specialists from Atlas are currently investigating and working to halt this threat. Meanwhile, the leader of the White Fang, Ghira Belladonna, refused to comment on these attacks. We'll have more information at 9 Pm."

Suddenly, the transmission was cut.

In place of the reporter's image now stood one of a mature, blonde woman with glasses.

I curiously stared at her, and then she began to speak.

 **Hello, and welcome to Beacon.**

"Great, speeches…", I groaned as I walked away from the image.

"I never understood why you never liked to listen to speeches.", said Lilith from inside of my mind.

'Speeches are boring.' I simply stated 'Besides, it's not a speech for me, it's a speech for the teens that are here.' I argued.

She sighed, 'I don't think it would be too bad to at least hear what she says…'

'…Alright, alright, just a little.'

 **You are among a privileged few who have received the honor of being selected to attend this prestigious academy!**

Wow. What a fucking lie.

 **Our world is experiencing an incredible time of peace.**

Hmmm, maybe here, but in other places… I think not.

 **You have demonstrated the courage needed for such a task.**

I'm seriously thinking she is only reading a script that someone gave her.

 **And now it is our turn to provide you with the knowledge and the training to protect our world.**

Well, if by 'protect' you mean 'die and kill others', I think it's close enough.

Whatever, the speech sucked.

Fortunately, before I could complain more, the airship arrived and opened its doors.

I waited for the rest of the teenagers to leave and then I also finally left the ship.

The first thing I noticed when I put my foot onto Beacon grounds was…

A danger ribbon surrounding a crater that was in the middle of the path…

…How?

I approached what looked to be a guard and spoke to him.

"Excuse me, Sir, may I ask what happened here?"

"Nothing important, kid, just an accident involving fire Dust"

"Fire Dust?"

"Yeah, some kid accidentally threw fire dust at the ground and made this crater, nothing important, really. But still, we need to have certain precautions if the dust starts to react again." he said.

Well, at least he didn't sound like an idiot.

"Oh, alright then.", I shrugged and continued walking.

However, I stopped when I saw a pamphlet that was on the floor.

I took it; it said 'Dust for Dummies and other inadequate individuals' in big words.

That made me smile a bit; who would put a name like that on a pamphlet?

Though it was a good euphemism to say 'fucking retards' in a nicer manner.

I continued reading while walking.

At the bottom and in tiny words, it said "brought to you by the Amitola Dust Company."

Amitola, eh? I remember that Lilith mentioned that surname before.

Better I keep this thing for now.

I looked at the other side where there was another paragraph, and I couldn't help but imagine an annoying, feminine voice reading it out loud and very fast.

 _,theAmitolaFamilyhighlyencouragescustomers_ - **shut the fuck up!**

Better I stop myself before I make myself want to give this piece of paper a treatment of 451 Fahrenheit.

I continued to the last page, and then I realized something interesting.

So, the dust I saw before, it's called Dust, with a capital D.

At least they didn't use any weird names, just Dust. That works for me.

" _ **Dust is one of our most important resource and a very necessary part of our everyday lives. It powers almost every device we use, from ovens to lights, vehicles, and even weapons.**_ "

That bad? I wonder what would happen if that thing suddenly disappeared.

End of the world, probably, with nuclear bombs. It would be lovely.

" _ **You are probably carrying a product powered by dust right now."**_

Actually, I am... I guess. I still have that vial of red dust in my coat. Does it count?

" _ **These devices will make use of the fuel produced by dust until all the dust is exhausted. At this point you may need to add more dust to your device to power it."**_

Capitalism, oh sweet capitalism, Oh how I missed you!

Actually, no, fuck off!

However, I continued reading until I noticed that I was inside of an amphitheater, along with a substantial number of teens surrounding me.

I thought it was going to have more people, but whatever.

Let's continue with the reading.

so, there's are two different forms of Dust, one a crystal form that is weak but more stable, and the other that is powdered, just like the one that I have inside of my coat; a more powerful, refined version, but also more dangerous to use.

And then there was the 'Safety Tips', my favorite thing in the world, because it always gave me good ideas to try later.

 **-Do not shake the product.**

Noted for later. I wonder if, with that, I can turn it into a grenade.

 **-Avoid dropping dust products.**

Pftt, tell that to the kid that caused that disaster at the entrance.

Though I like the crater...

- **Avoid sneezing on exposed dust.**

I wonder what would happen…

- **Keep away from flammable substances and heat sources.**

Boy, I'm already on fire, and with a couple of dust vials inside of my coat, if I exploded right now, it would be awesome.

- **Please do not mix different dust types.**

Actually, I think I'm going to follow this tip, only because it said please.

…

Nah, next time, I think I will make a Dust martini. With ice!

- **Keep away from children.**

...I could make some pretty nasty jokes about this, but that would earn me an intense lecture from Lilith, so not very worth.

' _Hey, look at your front_.' Lilith whispered at me.

Then I noticed a man with black clothes, glasses, and a green scarf, black gloves, and holding a cane, stepping up on the stage that was in front of me.

' _Is that Ozpin?_ '

' _Yep._ '

' _Perfect_ ' I simply said.

Ozpin coughed to clear his throat and then proceed to-ANOTHER FUCKING SPEECH?!

I swear, I'm going to kill the guy who created the art of speeches.

"I'll… keep this brief. You have traveled here today in search of knowledge-to hone your craft and acquire new skills. And when you have finished, you plan to dedicate your life to the protection of the people."

Hmm, I'd say he sounded rather blunt, I wonder why.

"But I look amongst you, and all I see is wasted energy, in need of purpose – direction. You assume knowledge will free you of this, but your time at this school will prove that knowledge can only carry you so far. It is up to you to take the first step."

Well, at least I have to thank him for keeping it short.

After a couple of minutes of giving directions and other extra information to the students, the introductions were over, and the students began to scurry all around like rats.

Meanwhile, I kept my gaze on Ozpin who started to walk away from the room along with the same blonde woman that I saw in the hologram.

I followed him, not caring if I bumped against others.

I followed after him into the inner campus of the academy, walking through some gardens, and further ahead of me was a tall tower.

'The Tower of Beacon, it's called.' Lilith informed me and I silently nodded.

However, I stopped walking once the two entered the door of the tower.

If I just walked in through the front door, it would attract some unnecessary attention to me and likely cause me some trouble I don't want to deal with.

Well… I think it's Parkour time!

* * *

This is not going the way I wanted.

When was it that everything changed?

Little by little, young men and women were starting to lose interest in following the path of a Huntsman, and starting to instead join the army and the marines.

And the idea that we were in some sort of armed peace wasn't helping at all. I'm still surprised that people like Glynda still seemed to have composure under all the pressure that the kingdom of Vale has been put under us.

At this point, it wouldn't surprise me if Salem presented herself in a future massacre. And the thought of it was making me feel slightly paranoid.

And worst of all, I'm beginning to fade away. My hands had begun to fade away like smoke this very morning, and that's why I was using gloves, so that neither Glynda nor anyone else would notice... for now.

I need some time alone. To think at least for a few minutes.

I asked Glynda to give me a few minutes alone in my office, and she accepted when I told her I would meet her on the ground floor later.

Fortunately, I could still grab things, so I grabbed my mug with hot cocoa and approached the nearest window that my gaze could see.

I took a sip of it while looking the landscape that the window was offering me.

I had already seen it many times in the past, but I always found it as stunning as the first time. Signal, the Emerald forest, all of Beacon, and a little bit of Vale and the city.

It was beautiful indeed, and that's why I felt scared; scared that I would vanish into nothing and let this world succumb in the darkness that Salem would bring to us at any moment.

And if it's not her, then I don't want to know what could be worse.

I closed my eyes and sighed.

What to do, what to do…

Then, I heard the breaking of a window.

I opened my eyes and quickly jumped away from the window, dropping my mug and taking my cane, and then I noticed that a young man was the cause of said broken window.

He looked to be in his teens, a blonde with shoulder length hair. One of his eyes was covered by his hair, while the other was uncovered, showing a lifeless and dull blue color. It would have fit more as the eye of a corpse more so than that of a living man. His clothes were black with some grey touches to them, and he had a long coat that reached to his ankles, leaving a trail of cinders on the floor.

His grey shirt, sleeveless, was covered in dried blood around his collarbone.

And his black pants, seemingly without pockets, were a little worn out, and his large black military boots made his stature seem just a bit taller than it was.

I stared at him, with cane in hand, and he stared at me stoically, without moving a muscle.

I don't know how long we spent like that, until he coughed in his hand, I then noticing a strange, rainbow-like marking on it.

"Sorry for the window, I didn't find any way to open it."

Then the mark glowed in a yellow light, and he moved his hand towards the broken pieces of glass, without breaking his gaze with me, and suddenly, the broken pieces were suspended into the air in a yellow glow surrounding them, and in but a few seconds, the window had reformed itself, as if it was never broken.

Just like Glynda… How did he-

"Alright, enough staring.", he clapped his hands and smiled, "I've come to talk, Ozpin."

I frowned, "Who sent you?"

"Does it matter?", He shrugged, "I have a better question for you."

Then, from inside of his coat, he grabbed something of white and black color, and then threw it at my feet.

It was… a head, and it was…

Oh, by the brothers…

"Do you know who this goddess was?", he asked me.

I didn't know how to answer that.

The head looked still fresh, her eyes were showing surprise and horror, and it was still bleeding from the neck, onto the floor.

"Salem…", I whispered.

"So, that's how she was called? Meh, I heard better names for evil gods.", He said it like it was the most mundane thing in the world.

My breath hitched, now I understood why my body was starting to fade.

My curse… it has been broken.

Salem.. My love…

"How did you do this?", I asked.

He just smiled at me and shrugged.

"I'm sure if I explain how I did it you wouldn't believe me. Let's just say I lost myself in the heat of a song."

"A song?"

"See? I knew you wouldn't believe me.", He laughed.

"But.. But how?! She was supposed to be immortal!", I yelled.

"Immortal for those who aren't gods like me. But now Salem is no longer my main mission."

"The thing is simple, I need your help.", he said, looking directly into my eyes.

He slowly approached me, my cane was unconsciously not aiming at him anymore.

"What do you want?", I asked.

"The relics.", he bluntly answered.

I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you want with them?"

"Don't worry, I'm not going to collect them to destroy the world.", He patted my shoulder, "My actual mission is collect and protect them. Then, putting them away in a safer place.", and then he pointed at me with one finger, "And I know that you know where they are, and I need that information."

"… I don't know.", I looked away, "I don't even know who you are."

"Does that really matter?", he rolled his eyes as he walked away towards the now fixed window.

"It obviously matters.", I growled, "You killed Salem, and now you present yourself as some kind of god and ask for my help to collect the relics that keeps this world away from a genocide?!"

"That can be a good resume.", He scoffed, "But I think you misunderstand. The relics don't keep this world away from its end… unless they are being used for that purpose."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Now that Salem is gone, it won't be too long until another god or goddess of darkness reclaims the throne and looks for these relics. My job is to put them away in a safer place. Outside of this world.", he turned around to face me with a frown, "I know how it sounds, Ozpin, but I'm not an evil good."

"I don't quite think you're a good one, though."

"I never said that either.", He snickered, "I just do my job, and that job is look for the equilibrium between worlds and universes."

"Despite what you said, I don't trust you."

"Why not?", He smiled as he slowly walked up to me, "I didn't tell you any lies, Ozpin. Quite the opposite. It is you who has said more lies than truths during all of your lives."

My eyes narrowed, "What do you know ab-"

Suddenly, he had somehow taken off one of my gloves, revealing one of my hands that was fading away like smoke.

"I know lots of things, Ozpin, and I have been in a lot of worlds before. Trust me when I say that I didn't come here to destroy the world, but to protect and eliminate what can really do it."

There was a long silence after which I sighed and rubbed my temples.

"What do you want to know?"

He smiled politely, "The location of those relics, and also a couple of names."

"The names first."

"Fine.", He nodded, "I want to know more about-", He then stood silent for a few seconds, as if he was listening to someone else, "Ironwood, James Ironwood."

"Ironwood… that's a name I haven't heard in a while.", I admitted, "He is the highest ranking, the general of the Atlas army."

"Did you meet him?"

"He is… was a friend, before the accident."

"Care to explain 'the accident'?", He said as he sat in my chair.

I sighed, "It was a long time ago, during James' wedding. An accident resulted in an explosion that killed his wife and destroyed half of his body."

"Did you know why there was an explosion?"

"It was done by a terrorist from the White Fang, in 'protest' when Ironwood had moved some of his troops between the territories of Menagerie and Mistral. After that, he wasn't the same. He got angry and thirsty for revenge towards the White Fang. And since then, he refused to talk or listen to me."

"I see.", He rubbed his chin, "Okay, I think I have enough on him. What about Illia Amitola?"

"Amitola? From the Amitola Dust Company?"

"Yeah, I also heard about that thing.", He said.

"I remember that she is the heiress of the company, and that she wanted to enter to this academy before her father made her enter an economic school instead."

"Sounds bad. And this company is very big, right?"

"One, if not the most important distributors of Dust on Remnant.", I asserted.

"Good, I will keep that in mind. Tyrian Callows, do you know him?"

"Unfortunately, it's the first time that I hear that name."

He visibly growled at that, "What about Taiyang Xiao Long?"

"Sorry, nothing."

He sighed, "And Arthur Watts?"

"I know he is a scientist from Atlas, but little else."

"Li Ren?"

"I think he was a hunter of Anima, but nothing specific comes to my mind."

"And what about…. Sienna and Ghira Belladonna?"

Oh, those names…

"Yes… I met Ghira before."

"Let me guess, also an 'accident'."

"You guess right", I sadly smiled, "Ghira was a good man. A faunus that didn't want anything but peace between our races. He was in the middle of a passive protest when an unknown man shot at him with a gun."

"Did he get injured?"

"No, he didn't.", I let out a long sigh before continuing, "But Kali did. She didn't survive."

"Who's Kali?"

"She is…. was, his fiancée. After her passing, he only mourned, drowning himself in alcohol, until Sienna comforted him, and months later, they got married, and they are now the leaders of the 'New White Fang'."

He sighed, " What else was I expecting? Stories of love..."

"Is the subject not one to your liking?"

"Not really, but it's pretty annoying to be honest.", He stretched his arms and yawned, "I already had enough with Aphrodite trying to find a significant other for me."

"Aphrodite? Who is-"

"Doesn't matter! Can you tell me who Bartholomew Oobleck is, or was that the name?", he changed the topic.

"Oobleck… I haven't heard that name in a while..."

"So, he's dead?"

"I don't know… He went on an expedition to the deserts of Vacuo to investigate an artifact, but he never came back."

"Mhmm...", he hummed as he leaned his head against the chair and took out a whisky bottle from his coat that was covered in dried blood. He took a long sip from it and then continued, "Alright, I think that's all the names I need to hear, and now, the relics, please?"

I let out a heavy sigh.

"Follow me."

I walked towards the elevator, not even noticing when the man had stepped beside me, walking along with me silently, and I also noticed that Salem's head was nowhere to be seen. He must have taken it again. When we were both inside of the elevator, I took out my keys to open a secret panel on the elevator.

I pressed the button that would bring us to the secret valve, and once the doors closed, we remained silent. There was no awkwardness or tension, but simply silence.

Once the door opened again, we were on an underground floor, the one that Amber was being sheltered within. Despite that, If this man tried to harm her, I would stop him on the moment.

"The relics are held behind that gate.", I pointed to said crimson colored gate, surrounded by a garden of poppies, as we walked, "Unfortunately, however, these gates can only be opened by the power of a maiden."

"What's a maiden?", he asked.

"… You know about the relics but you don't know about the maidens?", I raised an eyebrow.

"Lilith never told me about maidens.", he shrugged, "Probably because her omniscience powers have been somewhat failing since we came here."

"Lilith? Who is Li-"

"Tell me more about these maidens and where I can find them."

I tensed and he noticed.

"I'm not going to hunt them if that's what you are afraid of.", He reassured me.

"… Okay, there are four maidens in this world; winter, fall, summer and spring. All of them have an incredible power that is related to their corresponding season, and they are the only ones who can open these gates. Unfortunately, I don't know of the current ones' names or locations." I lied.

"Don't worry about that. Once Lilith fixes her little problem, it won't be necessary to ask for any names.", He said and he turned to the gate. And then he started to walk towards it, "Besides, you are wrong about one thing."

Suddenly, he pressed his left hand that had the symbol of two arcs against the rock gate, and just as suddenly, it glowed red, creating the form of a dodecahedron on the gate. And then, it slowly opened.

"Not only maidens can open this, but gods too.", then he winced a little, "But it costs a big amount of energy though, so it's not very recommendable.", He bitterly snickered.

"Wow…", So he is truly a god, or at least, someone who can control magic, like Salem and I.

"Don't look so surprised, it's just a door."

Once the gate was completely open, we could see what was behind it; a big black abyss in the ground.

"Hah, reminds me of that time with Manus.", the blonde man murmured, but I did not hear him to well.

"Manus?", I asked.

"Don't worry, just a name from my past adventures.", He bluntly explained before leaning closer towards the abyss. And without thinking twice, he just jumped in it, much to my own shock.

It wasn't until three minutes later that he came back from the same abyss, and this time with a golden crown in his right hand.

He landed on one foot as he said, "Superhero Landing! Not very healthy for the knees though."

"Are you done?", I asked.

"Pretty much, yes.", he shrugged before putting the crown inside of his coat. "Now, where can I find the other relics?"

I sighed, "There are other huntsmen academies out there, in Vacuo, Mistral and Atlas. But I'll warn you, those gates can be more difficult to enter than this one."

"I know what I'm doing, Oz."

"Don't. Call. Me. Oz."

There was a long silence after that while we were walking, he was behind me and I didn't bother to turn around to look at him.

"Damn, someone is a little bit mad!", he practically sang out.

"I'm not your friend to call me by any nicknames."

"Who said I want friends? I prefer allies."

"It isn't the same to you?"

"Allies can do whatever they want and they can leave after their job with you is done. Besides, I can't remember the last time I had a friend too well aside from them stabbing me in the chest.", he said it like it was the most mundane thing.

"In the chest?"

"Yes. And I can tell you more, but hey, we are not friends, nor allies.", he said firmly and stoically. He didn't sound mad, or sad, or depressed, Just somewhat bored and without any sign of emotion.

When we were both in the elevator again, I pressed a button, this time back towards the main floor.

After a couple of seconds, I asked, "What will happen to me now?"

"Excuse me?"

"Now that my curse has broken, what will happen to me?"

"Why would I know? You will probably finally be free and will finally be able to rest."

"But... the academy..."

"The academy will be fine. An empire doesn't fall that easily… most of the times."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing, I was just divagating. The thing is, Salem is dead. You will finally achieve peace, the relics will be in a safer place and the world will be a safer place filled with happiness once I'm done with my job."

I wasn't completely sure, but it seemed that he said 'peace and happiness' with a hint of sarcasm.

I sighed, "I can't believe that this is the end. I always thought Salem was unkillable during all this time…"

"All things have to die someday, Ozpin."

"But Salem was supposed to be immortal."

"Immortal for those who don't have a power like mine; Gods can kill other gods as long as they have the permission and the ability to do it, and I certainly had both.", He smirked proudly.

"Tell me… what is your name?", I stared at his visibly dull eye which didn't show any sign of emotion.

In that same instant, the doors of the elevator opened and in front of us was a big group of police officers with their weapons ready and aiming at us. At the back was a female officer who had a megaphone. I noticed Glynda there too, with a concerned but angry expression.

"You! The blonde with the coat!", the female officer shouted through the megaphone, "You are under arrest for the murder of Roman Torchwick!"

Roman… Torchwick? The man that was being searched for and chased after by both the Vale and Atlas authorities and armies because of all the heists that he had committed in the past few years?

I heard the blonde next to me chuckling, and I turned around and saw him smirking at me with a soft, yet dark smile.

"My name is Arc, and I'm The Murderer God."

With that, the man ran towards a nearby window, ignoring the yells of the police force that told him to stop and the vain attempts of someone using a taser gun that somehow passed through his body, like smoke. He jumped to the window and broke through it, but once he was outside of the building, he had disappeared.

Murderer God… What did he mean by that?

I was very deep in thought that I didn't even notice some of the officers and Glynda coming closer to me while the rest were searching for Arc.

"Ozpin… what is happening to your hands?", I could hear Glynda asking worriedly.

I shook my head and then I noticed that my hands, and also my feet, were fading quicker than before, and I also felt weaker.

Just like back when everything had begun

I stared at Glynda's eyes and I gave her a sad smile.

"Goodbye, Glynda."

And then, my entire body became not but ashes. My soul was free and everything went dark...

Arc…

Why did I think that I had heard that name before…

* * *

 **Author Notes: Sorry for the wait, I couldn't do too much last month because of some exams and things, aside from my computer that died last month.**

 **Also, don't worry, my other story is going to be updated soon, just wait a little more!**

 **I hope you enjoyed it, and see you in the next update!**


	5. Chapter 5: The Wicked Rose

_**Chapter 5: Wicked Rose**_

 _ **Beta Reader: The path of a writer**_

 _ **(Ok, before the chapter I think you should read this first)**_

"Something, something." External conversation.

' _Something, something.'_ internal conversation.

" **Something, something."** Dark or deep voice, loud yell, or song lyrics.

 ************************ POV change or flash-forward

* * *

"Hello Mist-Wait a moment, this is not Mistral.",, I said once I passed through the portal that Lilith had made as I had jumped out of the window.

I thought I would be in Mistral again, but no, I was inside of a big garbage truck that was flying like a plane. I turned around to see the same academy I escaped far away behind me.

"Why am I in a dump truck and still in Vale, Lilith?", I asked confused.

"Apologies for that, Arc, I couldn't determine a good spot to spawn a portal to Mistral and, if I'm being honest, I'm still a little tired after we opened those gates from before.", I could feel the exhaustion in her voice.

I sighed before sitting on one of the big trash bags which had plastic bottles inside it, "Well, it could've been worse. Now we have one of the four relics we have to collect.", I said as I took out the bronze crown and took a better look at it.

It didn't look very sophisticated, to be honest. I have seen relics and totems before that had very bright gems or that glowed in exotic colors. This one, however, didn't have any of that. It was a simple crown. Or at least, that was the idea; to look like a simple bronze crown.

I rested my head on the trash bag as I looked up at the bright sky.

"What's the actual status of the mission, Lilith?"

"If I'm correct, we need to go to an academy called Haven and look out for the Spring Maiden so we won't exhaust our energies for at least the rest of the mission."

"Any ideas of who the Spring Maiden may be?", I asked as I pocketed the crown back into my coat and replaced it with my whisky bottle.

"Unfortunately, no. However, that can change over the course of time."

"Do you still have problems with your omniscience powers?", I spoke after taking a sip of the strong liqueur.

"It feels like someone is interfering with them. However, it's more like an inconvenience than an obstacle for our mission. So, don't expect me to answer all the questions for you, because it's more likely that I won't have the answer."

"For me it's fine.", I said after taking another sip of the bottle. Then I noticed that I had just finished the entire bottle.

Annoyed, I threw it away, out of the truck.

I think I killed a raven with that, because of how it croaked in pain and the sound of a skull cracking in half.

I almost felt bad for laughing out loud. Almost.

After that, I couldn't help but yawn, and, before I had noticed, I had closed my eyes. Weird, that doesn't happen very often, but at that moment I really didn't mind.

And at that same moment, I opened them again, and I wasn't in the truck anymore, but instead lying on the dark ground of a flower garden.

The sky was filled with black clouds that gave the idea that any second there would be an intense storm.

I looked around and saw that I was surrounded by a lot of roses, but not fresh and living roses, these roses were rotten and lifeless. Wicked would be an appropriate definition.

I sat on the ground, then I looked at my clothes. They weren't the same that I usually wore. Instead, they were a black hoodie with a bunny face on its front, but covered in blood, and a pair of jeans that were in the same state.

"Lilith?", I called out loud to see if she was here. But there was only an echo. That could only mean one thing.

I'm dreaming.

Don't get me wrong, I had several dreams before, like that time with Morpheus, the god of dreams, but this didn't seem like a simple, mere dream.

My suspicions were validated once I stood up and saw a figure in the distance.

It was a girl. A girl with a short, crimson hair.

She was naked, showing her bare and pale back to me while crouching on the ground and shaking a lot, maybe because of the cold, or because she was crying.

I could hear her sobbing, repeating some words in some kind of mantra.

"don't take him away from me, don't take him away from me, don't take him away from-"

I took a better look at her back, and I noticed that there were several scratches, wounds and black bruises on it. The wounds were still open, and from them, a ton of black blood and pus flowed out like cursed rivers.

It was something very disgusting to see, but once again, I had seen worse things before. You don't want to know where…

Suddenly, I heard a strange whisper from my left. I turned my head and saw nothing but more fields of dead roses, and by the time I turned back to see the girl, she was gone.

How? I asked myself; it's like she just vanished, it was a real girl, or was it just an illusion?

Before I could keep questioning it, I noticed that a dense black fog had started to surround me. And then, dead roses, as if thrown, flew at my arms and feet, like chains that bound me, made me captive, like some slave.

The chains of these dead roses were very strong, probably stronger than metal, so I decided to not fight against them until I found out who or what was causing this.

Fortunately, I didn't have to wait too long until a voice, coming from the same dark fog, spoke:

" _ **Well, well, what have we here? Some foolish, soon to be dead man that trespassed in my chambers?",**_ the voice was feminine and sounded rather cocky, but lifeless and with a certain bloodlust surrounding her.

"Bold of you to assume I'm a simple man that fears death.", I scoffed, "By the way, nice place you have here, but I think your flowers need a little bit of water, don't you think?"

" _ **It's so good to make jokes in the final moments of your life.**_ ", she said sharply, " _ **Despite how that only shows how weak and foolish you can be. Don't you see who you are speaking with right now?**_ "

"Definitely. Not someone important to me, or to anyone else.", I said boredly.

That, surprisingly, made her laugh for a couple of seconds until, suddenly, a long scythe came out of nowhere, a mere few inches away from my neck.

It was a big scythe that was probably at least four meters long. The blade was made of silver and was covered in dried blood, and the handle was totally black with two long, red bows that intertwined their path in the middle of the handle.

" _ **Oh, killing you would be so pleasant and satisfactory to do. However, Why not play a little before the inevitable happens?",**_ and then she appeared before him.

From the fog, some kind of mixture between a Grim Reaper and a Lich had stepped out, with the scythe in her skeletal and pale hands. Her face was hidden by a red hood that had several holes in the bottom. She wore a long, black dress that was covered of blood. Aside from her clothes, she seemed to not have legs because she was floating in the air, her dress flowing down and over where they would have been, thus hiding whether they existed or not. She was probably at least five meters tall, thanks to her skinny complex.

" _ **Looks like I just made you speechless.**_ ", She said with a bitter, dried chuckle.

"What do you want?", I asked.

" _ **What about a little game?**_ "

"I don't have time for that.", I told her immediately.

" _ **Who said I need your permission? I don't need the permission of no one, not from the gods who took everything I had, and certainly not from a blonde, pathetic man like you either.**_ ", then she chuckled again, " _ **No, I think I have a little idea in mind."**_

I raised an eyebrow as she pulled away the scythe from my neck.

" _ **We will meet soon, Blonde man. But remember that I will keep an eye on you."**_

"You will regret this, Wicked Rose."

She laughed, _**"Wicked Rose… I like it, not bad for a simple man."**_

"Stop calling me a simple man, can't you see who am I?"

She laughed again.

" _ **Only another corpse that will be added to my collection."**_ , she replied.

Then she raised her scythe and prepared to attack me. However, before that happened, I opened my eyes again, and I found myself in the flying truck again.

This time, it was the afternoon, probably five o'clock. I sat up on the trash bag and then put a hand on my face.

I was sweating slightly, and I frowned at that.

"What the fuck was that?", I almost shouted.

"What was what?", asked Lilith.

"I just had the weirdest dream ever! And you didn't even care to wake me as well!", I told her angrily.

"Arc, calm down.", she calmly demanded, "I'm sure it was only a strange dream from a past memory."

"Oh hell no! It was very fucked up! There was a girl with her back more whipped than Jesus, and there was a Grim Reaper, and she dared to call me a simple human!", I raised my hands to the sky for more emphasis, "Then, the bitch said some shit, like, she will keep an eye on me, like she was fucking Sauron, but in a pathetic style like one of those porn parodies! And then-"

"Arc! Can you breathe for a second and look in your coat?!"

Oops, now I made her mad.

I decided to shut up and do as she said, and inside of my coat there was something glowing in a bronze color. I took out whatever the thing was and found it was the relic.

"It's glowing.", I stated, very dumbl- wait…

"This thing, this relic, was probably the reason why I had that dream before.", I muttered, but Lilith heard me.

"How are you so sure that it was because of the relic?", Asked Lilith curiously.

"I don't know, but it's the most likely answer.", I then stood up as I began to rub my chin, "This Wicked Rose…"

"Wicked Rose?"

"Yes, that spirit that I saw in my dream, which I could possibly see again in the future as I collect more of these relics."

"Is she any kind of Goddess?", Asked Lilith with a hint of curiosity.

"No, I don't think so; she talked about gods like they stole everything from her. It must be a vengeful spirit that is resentful against them."

"And she didn't know you were a god as well?"

"She called me a simple man.", I shrugged, "But that's not the issue. If she said she will keep an eye on me, it's most likely that she would be a threat to the mission in the future. It's possible that she is even hearing us right now…"

"Don't be paranoid, Arc. We would know if someone was watching us."

"That doesn't mean we don't have to be cautious with these relics and these maidens in the future. This Wicked Rose… she gives me a bad hunch."

Then I looked back at the crown that was still glowing with more intensity, and I frowned.

"There's another spirit around here, Lilith.", I said in a solemn voice, "We don't know what she wants from us, and we don't know anything about her story. however, she seems like a dangerous yet interesting being that might want to fight with us in the future. When we collect all the relics, we should investigate more about her, and, if it's possibly, kill her before she endangers our mission."

"It will be an easy job, like it always has been."

I let out a slight sigh in relief before looking at the relic, "And now, what should I do with this cro-!"

Suddenly, the crown floated out of my hands, much to my surprise, and remained hovering in the air before me.

The crown went through different changes in its shape, until suddenly, it emitted an intense bronze glow that illuminated the surrounding area. It was so bright I had to cover my eyes.

By the time the crown stopped shining like the head of a bald man on a sunny day, there was a new object floating in front of me.

A book. With a bronze cover.

The book gently landed on the dirty floor, a few meters near me, and I picked it up.

The cover didn't have anything written on it. There was nothing on either the front or the back.

I decided to open it. And there was nothing written.

That was, until letter began to magically appear on the soft paper.

The letters were very elegant and artistic. Then, the letters gathered into words. one of those words formed a name.

" _Summer Rose._ ", I whispered.

Then, more words continued to assemble further down the page.

" _Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Summer Rose. She was a girl born in Vale, one with lots of energy, enthusiasm and optimism. She was always happy and always liked to help whoever was in need. Her dream? Becoming a Huntress, like her parents were, and to go and travel to new adventures and become in a legendary hero._ "

"Silly girl. There's no such thing as heroes…", I chuckled bitterly.

But, why is there a story about a little girl in a relic that should be several millennia old? Does it have to do with the dream I had? This Summer Rose, is she the Wicked Rose by any chance?

Then I noticed a new paragraph below that I didn't recall being there a second ago.

" _Fathers, Mothers, Friends, Brothers, Sisters, Lovers. Forgotten are the souls that were unfairly accused so long ago, will always be punished until the man of pure heart that is lost in darkness sets them free from the misery of their own flesh and mind. All those stories of past times lay plastered here. Keep reading, and then, what was lost a time ago, will be found anew._ "

I don't get it, "Forgotten are the souls that were unfairly accused"? "Man that had a pure heart and now is lost in darkness"?

And what stories were lost a time ago?

Suddenly, the ground began shaking and began to lean. And before I knew it, I landed on more trash.

Ugh, I was now in what looked to be a garbage dump, with towers of trash all around me.

Hah, reminds me of the third circle of hell… Or Detroit. Obviously the futuristic one, I mean, the one with the cyborg cop. Cyborg, not android.

"Why am I in a garbage dump, Lilith?" I asked grumpily.

"Well, because it's near the port. So we can take a boat or ship and go to Mistral or one of the other countries that we have to visit later.", she said briefly.

"Ah… why is there a garbage dump near the port?"

"Don't ask me, I don't have the answer for that."

Sigh… I pocketed the book into my coat once again and started walking. I can read it later when I am on a ship.

I walked in silence for a while until I found myself a few meters away from a metal grille that was very tall.

But I didn't stop walking. Instead I kept walking until my body reached and passed through the grille as if I was smoke.

Few minutes later, after walking through the empty streets, I was in the port, where families occasionally walking by. However, they didn't seem to notice or mind me much.

Weird, I thought that the notice of Roman Torchwick's murder was already something that everyone was aware of.

Huh, well, better for me, I guess.

I kept walking until I noticed that in the distance there was a ship that was sailing off.

"Oh. That was our ship!", said Lilith.

"Are you sure?"

"Mhmh.", she hummed in confirmation.

"Well, It's still reachable.", I began running towards the ship.

"Oh, so we are going to be as stowaways?"

"It wouldn't be the first time.", I smirked.

As I jumped, I was headed towards the water, but then, I raised my hand as it glowed white. I pointed towards the boat's deck, and then, I teleported near the metal handrails and climbed up onboard.

With that, I found myself on the ship. Fortunately there wasn't anyone who saw me. But if anyone asked, I'm just a normal passenger with normal knees.

… wait, why did I say 'normal knees'?

Anyways, as the ship began to drift away from the port little by little, I rested my arms on the handrails as I looked at the sun that was starting to set.

"I wonder how much I have to wait until I arrive in Mistral.", I said out loud.

"Are you going to Mistral too?", came a voice from behind me.

I turned my head only to see a blue haired man with a red jacked and a smug smile, "What a coincidence! I'm also going there! Tell me, what is your name?"

' _He's obviously interested in you.',_ said Lilith inside my mind.

' _Like in a sexual way or a-"_

' _Don't be an idiot.",_ She interrupted me, _"It's obvious he wants to persuade you, to bring you to a quieter place to kill or rob you. Or at least, to bring you to other people that would do that work for him.'_

"Mhmh.", I hummed, then I took a better look at him and his soul by taking a deep breath through my nose. A power that the King Minos gave me a long time ago.

' _He's a womanizer, but he is not a murderer. Though his soul indicates that he made a lot of mistakes and gotten involved with the wrong people."_ ,I replied.

' _I see. So that means that he wants to get us to fix his debts with them.'_ Lilith said, amused with the new information.

' _Probably has to do with the Torchwick problem of "You messed with the wrong neighborhood" theme and the police thing.' I replied._

' _Most likely,'_ she agreed. _"And aside from that, look at how his legs are shaking."_

" _Oh.",_ I took a look at his trembling legs, _"What's wrong with him?"_

" _Looks like he is afraid of ships.",_ Lilith responded.

" _Or maybe water._ ", I suggested, _"Weird, then how-"_

"Uhm, h-hello?", called out the blue haired man, distracting me from my thoughts and conversation with Lilith.

"Oh, sorry, I was thinking about something.", I said bluntly, "My name is Arc. What about you?"

"Neptune Vasilias.", he shook my hand, "What brings you to Mistral, Arc?"

"I came for a little job that I have to do.", I wasn't lying.

"Oh, that's excellent! Tell me, is this your first time going to Mistral?"

' _No.'_

"Yes."

"That's excellent, dude! You'll love Mistral! I assure you. Would you like me to show you around and take you to some of its tourist attractions once we arrive?"

"Like where?"

"Oh! There's the Malachite Disco, where I was headed right now! You are going to love the place! It's exclusive, but I can get you in."

"Sounds good. May I know why the sudden invitation? Because it's the first time I see you and you act like you were my best friend or something.", I couldn't help but sound a little annoyed.

Friend… I hate that word.

"Uh? Oh, well...", he scratched the back of his neck nervously.

' _I guess you were right, Lilith. This guy is hiding something._ ´

´ _Should we kill him_?´ She asked.

" _Nah. I feel kinda thirsty and I want to take some bottles with me from that disco._ "

' _Is that the only reason?_ '

' _Hah, probably, if he was just a stupid guy that wants to take advantage of an 'innocent' man like me. But no, if he bring us to other allies of Roman, we can teach them not to mess with us and with our main mission._ '

Then the blue haired man finally answered.

"I guess because you look like a good person.", He said nervously.

…Is this man serious?

"And also because you remind me of someone.", He quickly added.

…Remind him of someone?

' _Probably just an excuse.' Lilith stated_.

"So, I just thought, _'Hey, He looks like a nice guy, and also, I needed someone to bring to the disco with me cause I have a double date.'_ "

"Double date?" I repeated.

"Yeah, two hot twins!", he whistled like a wolf, "I have a date with one of them tonight and I said that I would bring a friend of mine, but sadly, he got sick and stayed at home. So, what do you think? You get a date with a hot girl and you save my ass. Everyone wins! Well, what do you think?"

I think I will see this man in the second circle of hell pretty soon.

' _These twins that he's talking about, they're probably the ones who got this man in trouble._ ' Lilith whispered.

' _Interesting. If your suspicions are correct, it would be a step closer to put an end to this Torchwick problem._ '

' _Or getting pursued by the police even more so.'_

' _That was never a real problem.'_ I slightly shrugged my shoulders.

"I guess I'm interested in getting to know at least one of them.", I replied to Vasilias.

"Yeah! That's the attitude! Thank you friend, you're the best! You will not regret it!", he said with a wide smile, slightly chuckling.

I just rolled my eyes. It was obvious it would cost me time. But once again, it was better to wrap up the problem with Torchwick's death before it started to be an obstacle for my main mission.

Well, at least I will get some alcohol in the process.

' _Time to paint the disco red, Lilith'_

' _Here we go killing again.' she said giggling._

I quietly chuckled at the blue haired man.

 _Things will not go as he expects them to…_

* * *

"Sir, May I know what's on your mind right now?", the voice of a woman spoke inside of an office. However, her face couldn't be recognized because of the shadows.

A man with a robotic arm was looking at a giant screen, at a news broadcast.

"This morning, a strange incident occurred at Beacon Academy, where, presumably, the headmaster, Ozpin, was murdered by a currently unidentified man.", A woman called Lisa Lavender was on the screen along with a photo of the Headmaster to the right of her, "The man called himself Arc, and he's presumably also the one responsible for the murder of Roman Torchwick in a dust store in the kingdom of Vale a day prior to his assault on the Beacon headmaster. The Police has done several investigations and have stated that this man is yet to be found in any kind of archives or criminal records.", Then the camera cut off to an interview with a guard.

"When I first saw this man, I didn't know who he was. He just looked like a simple teen, with an emo style that I had seen several times before. Never passed through my head that he was a murderer and not a new student."

Then the camera cut off to the reporter once again.

"This man, however, was compared to ancient drawings that were found in old mine excavations, of a god connected to a spirit with a red dress and black hair, holding a knife covered in blood and with a hole in his chest. These drawings depicted the man as the exact representation of murder. The police speculates that this is the case of an extreme fanatic with a case of dementia and with a teleportation semblance. The suspect is a teen with medium-long, blonde hair that goes one of his eyes, and wore a long, gray coat along with both black pants and a black shirt. Some witnesses testified to seeing black smoke coming out of his clothes. We highly recommend the populace to call the police immediately if they see this man and avoid him at all costs. In other news-"

"'This man' seems interesting. I wonder if his semblance is indeed like the news described.", the man spoke in a robotic voice.

"Do you want me to search him?", the woman asked, "I can track him down in a couple of minutes."

"I would prefer that you focus on your job of tracking down Xiao Long, Winter.", the man answered, "We need his Semblance as soon as possible for our project. Speaking of which, how's that going?"

"Dr. Merlot and Watts informed me that they are almost done with the fabrication of the capsules. They also informed me about a new experiment that they were working on."

"Another of their experiments? They are not here to do experiments, what is it now?"

"A prototype of an android, with real emotions and able to behave like a real human."

"You turned them down, right?"

"Absolutely.", the woman replied.

"Good, we can't allow more resources for a simple prototype. The Amitolas wouldn't allow it either."

Exactly then, someone knocked on the door.

"Permission to enter, Great General.", the voice of man was heard behind the metal door.

"You can enter, Qrow.", he replied.

The door was opened, and a man with short black hair, red eyes and wearing the official uniform of Atlas came in.

"You can rest, soldier.", said the man, "What is the matter, if I may know?"

"Sir. The radars localized the position of Xiao long on the map. It is speculated that he is in the village of Kuroyuri at this moment."

"That's good to know, Qrow, thanks. Winter?"

"Yes, Sir?", the woman answered.

"Send a sniper to those coordinates to capture Xiao Long."

"Are you sure about this, Sir? Because I-"

"Xiao Long's semblance is a semblance that can protect him from bullets and close attacks. But with a sniper that can hit him without alerting him, it would be better than sending you in with close combat attacks. I apologize if I sound rude, but we can't allow Xiao Long to escape again. Understood?"

"Of course, Sir, I will send one immediately."

"Excellent.", the man began to chuckle.

"And please, Qrow, get in contact with Miss Goodwitch.", Ironwood said as he brought up a new image on the screen.

An image of said blonde witch with the following words below.

" _ **New Beacon Headmistress makes a conference about the 'Arc' situation."**_

"I need to talk over some serious topics with her…"

* * *

 **Author Notes:**

 **Hello again, since last year we didn't see each other huh?**

 **Ok, bad joke.**

 **Sorry if I didn't upload anything these days. I was in the beach and I have been busy during these weeks, I know that is not a real excuse to make you wait so long, and I apologize for that.**

 **Thanks for waiting, though. I keep doing a good effort for these stories so you can enjoy them, and I know my beta reader works hard too to help me with the fic as well.**

 **Thanks for the waiting, and I hope you've enjoyed the chapter!**


	6. Chapter 6: Panic At The Disco

**Part 6: Panic at the Disco**

"Something ,something" External conversation

' _Something, something'_ internal conversation

" **Something , something"** Dark voice or loud yell

 **Horizontal Line =** POV change

Beta Reader: The Path of a Writer

* * *

"What kind of girls do you like?"

'… _.Is this man serious right now?'_

"What do you mean?", I asked as I and this blue haired man were walking through the streets of Mistral.

"Oh, well, you know! Type of hair, personality, those things!"

"I… don't know what to say."

"Hey, don't worry! I understand, you can be a little shy and all, its fine! But you have to at least have a preference, right? Or maybe, you know, you don't like girls, and if that's so I apologize if I offended you or-"

' _This man is an idiot.',_ said Lilith in my head.

' _Sigh… Let's just get this over with.',_ I told her.

"Redheads, I like redheads.", I said nonchalantly, "And maybe black haired girls or blondes, I guess."

Or at least, that's what first came to mind, anyway. Lilith would probably read into it too much, though.

"Hah! I knew we had something in common!", he exclaimed happily, "Though I would add white haired to the list."

"Yeah, actually, I never liked the color white."

"Yeah? Why?"

' _Maybe because it makes me gag? and aside from that, who cares?'_

"I simply don't like it. That's all.", I bluntly answered, and that seemed to work for him.

Fortunately, before he could suggest more colors to add to the list, the man, Vasilias, stopped in front of a line of people that wore clothes of extravagant styles and colors.

"Finally, here we are!"

"Is this the club you were talking about?", I asked.

"Yup, it is very beautiful from the outside, right?", he said as he took out some weird gadget that was similar to a smartphone and began to message with someone.

I simply shrugged, "So, are we going to wait or-"

"Oh, that won't be necessary! Come with me.", He cheerfully said, to which I followed him, skipping the line of men that had funky get-ups and the acidic smell of pride in their hearts.

Vasilias stopped in front of a bouncer that was dressed like the men that were along with Torchwick back in the dust shop, but he was a bit taller and more muscular than them.

Vasilias showed his phone to him, and he inspect it for a couple of seconds, then he nodded.

"You two can enter. Enjoy the party.", The man said in a deep voice as he opened one of the black doors of the club.

"What?! How can they enter first before us?!", A redhead man dressed in a black jacket and jeans yelled. He smelled like a girl, probably his perfume, and had one of his arms around the waist of a blonde girl with a white dress that was doing something on her phone and who probably had more followers than neurons in her brain.

"Sorry, they have a VIP pass.", The guard said briefly, "And VIP guests don't wait in line."

"Oh that's bullshit!"

"If you have a problem with that, talk with the owner, not with me."

"C'mon, Arc, Let's go.", Murmured Vasilias who was a little nervous about the unwanted attention.

"Alright.", I simply shrugged before entering. I don't see why the man would be mad.

At least he would survive.

When I entered the club, I saw a ton of people under sky blue lights, dancing in the further ahead of me. On the dance floor, there were women with suggestive clothes, in caged attached to the ceiling like birds, dancing to the music that the DJ was playing, mainly electronic.

There were also quite a few bars where groups of five and four people were drinking shots and taking selfies.

Pride, Gluttony and Envy, all in the same place.

I had to whistle at that.

"Yeah, I know, awesome, right?", Said Vasilias next to me, he didn't have a clue as to what I was thinking.

Anyways, next thing I know and two girls with black hair, one in a red dress and the other in a white one, approached us.

"Neptune! Finally, you came!", said the girl in the white dress.

"And also brought company, I see.", Then said the girl in the red dress.

"Hey girls, Sorry If I'm late, the trip on the boat was a little agitating.", Said Vasilias before pointing to me, "He is Arc, a friend of mine."

"Hey.", I simply said with a small bow of my head.

Then the girl in red approached me with a smile and put her hands upon my shoulders.

"Hello, Arc, My name's Miltia.", she said with a flirty tone, "You look exactly like Neptune told us."

"Really?", I raised an eyebrow.

"Yup. Tall, blonde, handsome... and mysterious.", she giggled, "Tell me, do you dance?"

"I suppose.", I shrugged.

"Then care to join me on the dance floor?"

' _Precaution, Arc, she has a weapon on her.'_ ,said Lilith.

' _Yeah, I also noticed the gloves, Lilith. She and the other girl look rather mischievous.'_

"I would like to.", I answered, and she happily dragged me to the dance floor by the hand, leaving Vasilias and the other girl behind.

' _What's the plan?'_ asked Lilith.

' _Let's just play along until she asks something or does something odd. I will try to ask some questions and then I will proceed to kill her'._

' _What kind of questions?'_

' _Who are her bosses and what do they want. Then, after that, we can simply leave this place. Also, do you have any idea who is the next maiden that we have to find?'_

' _The search is a little difficult. I will need some more time until I have enough data.'_

I sighed _'At least you have something.'_

After that, I found myself in the middle of the dance floor, dancing in front of the short haired girl with green eyes.

"So, Arc,", She began, "Tell me, are you single?"

"Well, yes?", I half asked, half replied. Why did she care anyways? I know she is only distracting me, but, isn't that a little personal?

"Really? How?", she said surprised.

"I simply didn't find anyone interesting.", I shrugged my shoulders. However it's true that I found some women in my travels that were of pleasant company, but that's a story for another day.

"Well, well. And what do you find interesting in a woman, Arc?", she raised an eyebrow as she got closer to me.

That she doesn't get between me and my missions.

I shrugged, "I don't know, actually, I was never interested in looking for a significant other.",

She got closer to me again as she put her hands on my neck, "Maybe I can change that.", She cooed.

"Well, if you can then-", She didn't let me finish my sentence as she put her lips onto mine.

Rude. At least she could have bought me some drinks first.

' _Huh, reminds me of that time with Semiramis.'_

 _Don't talk to me about Semiramis, thanks, Lilith..._

She giggled a little before becoming serious again _'watch that hand, she is going to stab you.'_

' _Huh?_ Then I noticed that she had lowered one of her arms while she was kissing me, and her glove had morphed into a claw.

 _A little bold of her to do that in the middle of the dance floor._

' _She probably wanted to make it seem like an accident. Besides, it's her property along with her sister and their uncle, so she won't mind, and if there are some witnesses, she can pay them to shut up.'_

' _Hah, I knew she was a murderer ever since I saw her for the first time.'_

The next moment she prepared to stab me with that claw of hers, but then I grabbed her wrist. She opened her eyes wide as I gave her a deadpan expression. She looked shocked, then she frowned and, with her other hand, that also had a claw now, tried to stab me.

Vain attempt, because then I simply grabbed her other hand as well, and with a subtle move, I broke her wrist, leaving it bent in a strange position backwards.

She tried to scream, but I didn't let her because I bit her lips, hard.

She tried to pull off, so I just grabbed her waist and her good hand with more strength.

I looked around and saw that there were some guys with black clothes watching the situation and talking through some walkie-talkies.

' _They found us.'_ Lilith said.

' _Yep.'_

' _Let's finish this quickly.'_

She struggled several times and screamed soundlessly, most likely internally, in pain, but I didn't move from my position until I was sure that she wouldn't scream. I stopped biting her lips and spoke;

"Do you think I wasn't aware where I was going?"

"G-Go to hell!", She said through clenched teeth.

"Where do you think I came from?", I chuckled, "But that doesn't matter. Your superior, tell me who it is."

"And what makes you think that I-AHG!", I took her broken hand and moved it roughly. It was more to incite pain in her that anything else.

"You don't have an option, unless you want me to break your other wrist, to kidnap you and leave you limbless in some back alley where some hobo uses you as stress relief.", I said in a husky tone as my mark started glowing in a crimson red color, and my hand morphed into a large, deadly and dark claw with equally large and sharp nails.

I touched her neck with the claw, softly rubbing the nails against it, especially focusing on the jugular vein.

"And trust me when I say that it wouldn't be the first time I do that.", I grimly smirked as she gulped audibly.

"D-Don't kill me, please...", she pleaded with tears in her eyes.

"I'm going to do exactly that if you don't tell me who you are working for."

"O-Okay, it's N-Neopolitan a-and Cinder, C-Cinder Fall."

"What do they want? How did the police find me so quickly at Beacon?"

"I-I don't know, I don't know what happened at Beacon. They must have bribed the police or something."

"Police corruption… Interesting. What else do you have? What do they want from me?"

"N-Neo wants revenge. She told us about you. W-We didn't even know you'd be here tonight, but guessed it was you when we heard your name was A-Arc, and saw t-that you matched the description we had of you. Y-You killed her father, Roman, and she put a price on your head."

"How much?"

"L-Like, t-twelve million l-lien."

' _Wow, with that money I would buy a good amount of rubber duc-Focus, Arc!'_

"And what about Cinder Fall? What does she want?"

"I-I'm not sure, I-NHG!", I grabbed her throat and lightly squeezed it, "I-I Don't know! S-She is probably upset because you stole one of her best thieves and the dust she needed it!"

"Why would she need that Dust? Be honest, or-"

"I-I think she wanted to attack Beacon, or-"

" **STAY STILL ARC, WE GOT YOU SURROUNDED!",** a man yelled, and then I noticed that I was, in fact, surrounded by black suited men, and that the civilians were all gone.

"Melanie!", Yelled her sister who was behind the suited men, and behind all of them was Vasilias with a pale face, trying to subtly walk away from the scene.

I frowned. ' _Where the hell does he think he is going? Not on my watch, you whore!'_

And in a moment of incredible lucidity, I smirked back at this girl, Melanie.

"I had a great time with you, really, but I think we should see other people.", I said before throwing her towards Vasilias and knocking him to the floor, much to everyone's shock.

' _Yeet!'_

"Melanie! You bastard!", Melanie's twin sister yelled before reading her weapons along with the other guys. "You will regret coming to this place, you murderer!"

' _finally, someone recognizes my profession._ ', I smiled, ' _Lilith, fast question. Weapons or no Weapons?'_

' _Let's see how much damage you can do without your sword.',_ she answered.

I nodded, and then I smirked before gesturing with my hand towards the group.

"Who wants to go first?", I taunted the group of men.

That was until they cocked their guns and began shooting at me.

'Damn!', exclaimed one of them as I teleported behind him and raised my marked hand. The mark glowed in a dark brown color, and from the ground, four rock spears appeared and skewered four men through the chests, destroying their spines and leaving their hearts at the tip of each spear. The hearts were even still beating as the men screamed in surprise and agony.

Quickly, I Jumped towards another man who was distracted by the gruesome sight, my other hand also became a claw and I ravaged his stomach so ferociously I dissected him in half; his guts spilled out as blood kept flowing and soiling my body and the dance floor.

I heard how more men entered the room and began shooting at me with what sounded like assault rifles.

" **Pause!"** , I yelled, and time stopped at my words.

I turned around only to see six men standing further ahead in front of me with scowls on their faces.

I began running towards them as my hands were returning to their normal state, except for my marked hand that transformed into a long and sharp black sword instead.

I jumped, and with just a twirl, I effortlessly sliced the necks of the men in one motion. Once I landed on the ground behind them I yelled again.

" **Continue!"**

And without looking back, I felt how more blood was soiling the back of my coat, likely, too, the floor, and heard the sound of six head falling to the floor like potato bags.

I turned my head to the right, only to see four men shivering and frozen in place, looking at me with pale faces.

When I made one single step towards them, they immediately dropped their weapons and ran desperately while screaming.

"Eh?", I raised a brow, staring at the men for some seconds before raising my hand and making three other spears erupt from the ground, skewering them through the skulls, elevating their bodies above the floor in the process.

"Pathetic mortals.", I said with venom in my voice, "Show them a basic lethal power and they shit their pants and finish in an asylum if they survive. Typical."

Suddenly, I felt the floor shaking. I turned around and saw a colossal, bald man was charging towards me.

Without missing a beat, I charged against him too. He grabbed me by the shoulder but, before he could do anything, I punched him in the stomach.

He recoiled in pain, and before he could react further, I grabbed him by the throat as I effortlessly lifted him up.

He struggled for air, trying to pull my hand away, but sadly for him, he couldn't. his face turned from red to purple, and I began to get bored. Strangulation always needed time and patience, and I don't have any of those right now.

Without hesitation, I strengthened the grip on his throat.

The flesh collapsed as more blood landed on the floor. The corpse fell to the ground, and in my hands there was the windpipe of the man.

I dropped the cartilaginous tube as I cleaned the blood off my coat. Then I yawned, wondering why humans like to waste their lives like this.

Then, I heard the sound of shaky breaths, along with sobs and unintelligible mutterings.

I turned to my left, only to see one of the twins holding the still non-broken hand of her sister who was conscious once again, both in the same state of shock. Vasilias was nowhere to be seen; maybe he was hidden under all the bodies I mutilated.

"You're both still alive?", I said nonchalantly, "Well, that can be fixed."

"W-W-W-What-"

"What am I talking about? It's very simple, I'm going to explain it in simple words, so you can understand me, ."

From my shoulder, I could feel something moving inside my flesh, begging to be released.

And like the always kind person I am, I let them be free.

Two black, serpentine demon heads erupted from said shoulder, hissing at the twins who had lost all color in their faces.

Both had sharp and deformed teeth, their eyes glowed in an amber color; and their skinny and long black bodies barely hid the impressive amount of veins that coursed through them.

As I got closer to the twins, the serpent beasts drooled more and more black saliva.

"I'm going to say it just once, If I want something, I get it! And if something bugs me, I _**destroy**_ it! If this aggrupation of yours keeps bugging me, I'll show them how upset I can be. The next thing I'm going to do will be my message to them."

' _Although I could let them live so they can tell their superiors how dangerous I can be, but hey, where's the fun in that?'_

The serpent heads loudly growled as I allowed them slowly approached the stunned girls.

"And to write my message, I'll be the pen, and your blood, _**my ink**_.", those were my last words to them before I closed my eyes, and let the demon heads run loose.

I heard hungry growls from the beasts before they went into action.

Then, I heard yells, screams and sobs.

At first, it's fear.

Then, desperation.

Then, pleas of mercy.

And then…

 _Silence. Sweet, peaceful, silence..._

Oh well, At least it was fun while it lasted.

* * *

The sound of bass, drums, a piano and a guitar were audible in the background as I was looking through the cabinet of the now empty club.

Let's see, let's see, what does this cabinet have? I hope something good.

Tequila, nice! Rum, good. More whisky, great!

Wine from Vacuo?

Were they expecting some gentlemen with top hats to come here?

' _Arc._ ' Lilith spoke.

' _Aye?'_

' _Your face is covered in blood.'_

" _Oh, yeah!",_ I said before pocketing the bottles of alcohol inside my coat.

I then heard her sighing, _'You know, I don't think you should' have killed those twins.'_

' _Why not?'_

' _I think it would have been better if you let them live so they could tell their bosses to stay away from us.'_

' _...And why didn't you say anything?'_

' _...well, I thought you were having fun, and the fight was very enjoyable to watch, so… I stayed quiet.'_

It was my turn to sigh and roll my eyes playfully, _'Why am I not surprised?'_

' _Hush, you dolt.',_ she said playfully, too, _'I'm not the beast here, after all.'_

' _Not just a beast, but the best beast!'_ , we both shared a short laugh.

Then I turned around only to see the mass of bodies and blood covered the floor. The twins were hanging in the air with rock spears through their abdomens, they were headless and limbless as well.

 _ **Nobody move, there's blood on the floor!**_

I started singing as I walked through the work of art I had just created, like, four minutes ago?

 _ **And I can't find my heart**_

Not only were there ravaged bodies everywhere, but a large amount of the furniture was reaped as well, like some beast having just impaled its big claws into all of it. The lamps were just a few seconds away from falling off the ceiling, while the rest of the dance floor, the bar, stools and cabinets were no less destroyed.

I think I let my serpent heads loose a bit too much. I think Phobos and Deimos should receive a better meal next time.

 _ **Where did it go? Did I leave it in the cold?**_

I was moving my hips to the rhythm, when I noticed someone moving and groaning between all the blood and the faceless, headless and - or -limbless corpses.

 _ **So please give it back 'cause it's not yours to take**_

I also finally saw Vasilias, with a terrified face and just seemingly having noticed the black man next to him, the one whose torso was ripped open, and immediately stood up with a scream at the sight.

 _ **It must've fell when I lost my mind**_

"Uranus, you son of a bitch, you're still alive! I thought I killed you along with that bitch Melanie!", I yelled as I approached him.

 _ **Deep in the cut, drowning in a pain.**_

"W-What did just ha-"

" **I MURDERED EVERYONE, VASILIAS! What else were you expecting when you brought a MURDERER GOD to a club full of enemies?!",** I yelled, my eyes wide open and with a twisted smile on my face.

 _ **Somebody help, 'cause I can't find my way**_

"M-Murdered… Go-"

"We know you are there, Arc, we have the club surrounded!", the voice of a woman interrupted him.

 _ **Nobody move, nobody mov-**_

I cut the music off once I heard the sound of sirens.

How did the police arrive so quickly? Maybe a civilian called them while I was fighting. Also, last time I checked, I didn't have ebony skin… Yeah, that was probably a bad joke.

"We can do this very easily, Arc, we can-"

" **SHUT THE FUCK UP, BITCH! GO BACK TO THE KITCHEN**!", I insulted her

Oh, how I love to lose my sanity sometimes.

I took Vasilias' hand and I dragged him to the center of the room.

"W-What! H-Hey, w-what are you-"

"Shut the fuck up , too, Vaseline, we need to leave this place! Lilith, open a portal."

"Where?" She asked out loud.

"W-Who said that?!", Neptune yelled

I ignored him, "Elsewhere but here, we have a baby that just pooped his pants and I need a private place to change him."

"What do you have planned for him?", She asked,

"Meh, I can use him as bait, or trade him to a tribe for transport, or-", I turned to see his sweaty face, "Say, do you know where I can find this place's local huntsman academy, Haven, I think, it was called?"

"I-I'm a student th-"

"GREAT!", I yelled again to shut him up, "Only because of that, I will not trade you to a tribe of bandits. Lilith, open a portal, please."

immediately, a portal opened in front of us, revealing a dark forest on the other side.

I simply smirked at Vasilias "Get ready, Vas, because you are going to experience the most impactful, shocking, unbelievable, sometimes offensive, and wacky adventure that you will ever experience in your life. And you won't be able to leave it until it's finished, because you're **Fucked,** capital F. And if you dare try to betray me or escape, I will know. Understand?"

He simply nodded his head nervously after gulping loudly.

"Great, see you on the other side!", I smiled before pushing him towards the portal.

After that, several officers wearing armor burst through the doors, but they froze a second later when they saw the massacre that I had caused minutes back.

I winked at them and gave them the finger as I entered the portal. It closed behind me just as I passed.

I noticed Vasilias standing in front of me and shaking, and I think he was also crying a little, judging by how his eyes were slightly moist.

"What's the matter?" I asked, this time softly, "You never saw a man covered in the blood of at least forty people in your life?"

"Y-You killed them…"

"That's correct", I said stoically.

"B-But why?"

"Because they were being a hindrance to me. You see, I'm on an actual mission looking for some magical things called Relics, if I don't collect them, everything is going to get fucked."

"B-But was it necessary to kill them?"

"Vas, do you really think there are other ways for these kinds of things?"

"W-Well-"

"No. The only thing that really works is using force. Pacifism can work sometimes, but it never lasts enough and before long a new war emerges. I'm a murderer God, Vas, it's already in my title."

"A-A g-god?"

"Yep!"

"S-So that means you are immortal?"

"Yep! 917 years old! Want some proof? I can cut off one of my limbs if you want."

"N-No, thanks, I-I will pass...", he responded weakly.

' _Huh, he didn't doubt me saying that I'm a god… oh well, maybe because he's still in a shocked state?'_

"Whatever.", I scoffed, "Lilith, did you find out where the maiden is or not?"

"Actually, yes. Her name is Vernal, she is the new leader of a tribe in mistral, but still, I couldn't find where she is, so I put a portal here where we can ask for some help."

"W-Where did that come from?", Asked Vasilias, confused.

"From inside my head.", I briefly replied before returning my attention to lilith, "Where did you bring us?"

"Turn around and you will see.", Said Lilith, and I complied.

There was a village a few meters in front of us.

"Do you know its name?"

"I-Its Kuroyuri.", Answered Vasilias, "I-I already have been here before, it's a nice place to stay."

"A shame I don't like vacations.", I shrugged before I began to walk, "C'mon, Vas, time's gold!"

"S-Sure..."

Sigh, this is going to be a long journey, "Lilith, who are we looking for?"

"It's actually two men that will help us. One is Li Ren, and the other is Taiyang Xiao Long. They will help us find Vernal, especially Xiao Long, since he is speculated to be part of her tribe."

"Speculated?"

"It's the only thing I could find. You know, the interferences..."

"Okay, I get it.", I sighed, "At least it's better than nothing.

Well…

Kuroyuri…

What do you hide behind your shadows?

* * *

"This.. This is not going how we planned it…", Said Cinder exasperatedly as she stared at her scroll, "What was the point of bribing those cops if they can't catch a simple blonde fool?!", she then threw the scroll towards a gray wall, next to a little woman who had pink and brown hair and was looking down to the ground with a mix of anger and depression on her face.

Said scroll exploded once it hit the wall, but the woman remained still. She was holding a cane covered in dried blood tightly with both hands.

Cinder sighed heavily, "Junior is not going to like this when he finds out. First I lose contact with the mistress, then Roman is killed, then Ozpin, and now, a fucking genocide in the Malachites' Club?!", Cinder activated her semblance with the intention of burning down everything, "Who does that Arc boy think he is?!"

" _ **I would suggest for you to calm down a bit, Cinder Fall**_ ", A new voice spoke from behind the shadows within the basement they were currently in, much to the shock of Cinder and the other, pink haired woman.

"Who said that?! Was that you, Arc?!", she yelled angrily, without considering that the voice belonged to a woman.

" _ **Who? The Blonde man? Don't misunderstand me, Cinder, I didn't come here to make you angrier than you already are right now. I came here because you are something that I need.**_ "

"Who are you?", Asked Cinder, her semblance still active, "Stop hiding and show yourself!"

" _ **I don't have the necessity to show myself, Cinder. But I can give you something better instead.**_ ", The voice chuckled slightly, before several pages came falling like feathers, out of seemingly nowhere, at Cinder's feet.

Cinder deactivated her Semblance and picked them up; on them there were pictures of Haven Academy, information on Neptune Vasilias and Taiyang Xiao Long, pictures of Kuroyuri, and the picture of a blue lamp.

" _ **The blonde man is looking for the lamp that is in Haven Academy.**_ "

"This... this is one of the relics, judging by my mistress' descriptions...", Spoke Cinder, intrigued, "I must talk to her about-"

" _ **She's dead, Cinder. The Blonde man killed her before he came here.**_ "

Cinder stayed quiet, in shock at the words.

"That's… That's impossible, my mistress is immortal, she can't be killed."

" **But she was.",** the voice protested, **"And she was killed very easily."**

"I refuse to believe it, whoever you are. Salem was supposed the biggest threat of humanity. it should be impossible that she would get killed by a boy that only has a teleportation semblance."

" **Semblances are not the cause of Salem's decease. The blonde man is something that you should take more seriously. that is, if you want to kill him and claim vengeance for your ex-mistress."**

"And why should I claim vengeance?", Asked Cinder in a cocky tone.

" **Because I know that deep inside you, you cared and respected Salem. she gave you power and a home when nobody else did."**

Cinder froze at those words, remembering a few bits of her past.

" **The Blonde man still has Salem's head inside his coat. Kill him, and I will help you revive her."**

"…Who are you?", Asked Cinder, "And why are you trying to help me?"

" _ **I don't have a real name, but the Blonde man called me Wicked Rose, and I think that would be enough for now. And, I'm not helping you, you are helping me."**_

"Helping you?", repeated Cinder

" **Yes, helping me, to stop the blonde man, to stop him and to show him who it is that's the real terror in this world.**

then, a shadow in the form of a skinny finger approached Cinder, stopping inches from her her.

" **Do me this favor, and I will give what you always wanted; Power, and maybe more."**

She chuckled, and then that chuckle began to fade along with the evil aura that filled the empty basement they inhabited.

Both Cinder and Neo remained silent for a couple of minutes, then Cinder turned to Neo who was looking her in the eyes for the first time since Roman died.

"Change of plans, Neo. Forget Beacon, I need to contact Emerald and Mercury, you can go and contact Hazel or Tyrian. We need to get to Mistral as fast as possible."

Neo made a couple of gestures with her hands.

"Do you think you can kill that kid, Arc?"

Neo made an affirmative nod with a twisted smile.

Cinder giggled, "Well, I can't see why not, after all, you are the best assassin on Remnant. But only if you leave a piece of him for me."

Neo nodded again, and then she activated her semblance to teleport to somewhere.

Meanwhile, Cinder once again looked at the pages for a moment.

"Mhmm… but I still need the powers of a maiden first…"

" _ **I was already aware of that.**_ "

Cinder turned back towards the shadows, "I thought you were gone."

" **Actually,** _ **I had just went on a quick visit to someone.**_ "

Then, a human body was launched from within the shadows; an ebony girl that looked very weak.

"Amber…", said Cinder, shocked.

"W-What just ha-AHG!", suddenly, much to Cinder's surprise and Amber's horror, what she could only describe as a beam of sorts shot out - or more likely, through - Amber's chest and straight into Cinder's. Cinder tried to scream in surprise but she was already in a catatonic state, and just blankly stared at the beam which pierced her chest, rather than pain, feeling it begin to give her a new and unknown kind of power.

" _ **This power is yours, Cinder. Take it, and become what you always craved and deserved."**_

The dark voice then hummed happily.

" **Blonde man, soon, we will meet each other, once again…"**

* * *

 **Author Notes:** Hey Everyone!

Not gonna lie guys, I was a bit busy during these weeks. I just entered to an university and I'm studying Psychology. maybe a hard career but i don't career because I like it.

So yeah, and also my beta reader has been a bit busy too. life is hard when you become an adult, but I'm not going to complain.

I still have some chapters of this fanfic gathered in my computer, so you don't to worry too much, they just need to be edited and that'd be all.

Thanks for all the follows and favorites, and please, let a review too! I would like to read what you think about it.

See you next update!


	7. Chapter 7: Happy Hour

**Chapter 7: Happy Hour**

Something ,something" External conversation

' _Something, something'_ internal conversation

" **Something , something"** Dark voice or loud yell

 **Horizontal Line =** POV change

 **Beta Reader: The Path of a Writer**

* * *

 _In time past, the day that Summer Rose had been born, there was a big storm which had fallen upon the region of Vale, but as she had given her first cry of life, the storm had subsided mere moments after, revealing a beautiful rainbow of bright and different colors. Since that day, her parents knew that Summer was someone special._

 _Summer had a normal childhood, like everyone else; she went to school, she had friends, and she always was kind, sweet, and respectful to her elders._

 _Her parents, however, were always a little worried about how their daughter's life could end up in danger because of the dream, the goal she had ever since she was four; becoming a huntress and saving the world._

 _The job of a huntsman, while being an honorable job, was the most difficult and dangerous of them all, and her parents knew that, since they had lost important friends and people to it in the past; not necessarily by death, but also because of mental instability, trauma, and nightmares that usually finished in suicide attempts._

 _Summer, despite her parents trying to dissuade her in the most kindly ways without demoralizing her in the process, had decided to keep following her dream, no matter what the cost._

 _When she was fifteen, she was admitted to Signal academy, an academy for huntsman beginners that was near her home in Patch._

 _But she wasnt ready to meet-_

* * *

The next sentence was unreadable, covered in black ink, censoring it, as if I was reading a classified document.

I don't get it. This was a book that was supposed to tell me about the 'forgotten' ones, so why is it hiding the names from me? Besides, there are a lot of blank pages after this part which confuses me. Is this book really trying to show me a story of some kind? Or is there something hidden in those blank pages?

Currently, I was walking through the streets of Kuroyuri, the blood that had drenched me since I left the bar was long gone, thanks to my coat that had absorbed it like a sponge.

Vasilias, who was no longer whimpering like a bitch but was still nervous about the situation, was walking along with me through the colorful streets of the village.

"W-What's that book about?", he asked.

"Honestly, I don't know.", I replied, turning my head to regard him.

"You see, this-"

Then I noticed something behind him; a lake, and in that lake lotus flowers were floating.

Something normal. That was, until you looked at them a bit more carefully and noticed that they were dead and rotten, and with large numbers of worms inside that were eating the flowers and their leaves.

A disgusting view, and an obvious sign that danger was near.

Who wanted to try my patience this time? Was it the Wicked Rose who was keeping an eye on me?

"A-Arc?", Vasilias gave me a confused look.

I cleared my throat before I spoke, "I will tell you later, Vasilias, but for now, we need to move with more care through this place. Say, do you carry any weapons with you?"

He nodded.

"Great! Don't dare to leave it for any second of your life, because it's likely that we will need to fight any second now, and if you get injured", I turned around and started walking away, "I won't save you"

"I-What?!", he yelled, "B-But why? I thought you were a god, and gods heal people, right?"

I scoffed loudly, it looks like he still believed my words from earlier. That's good.

"Sorry Vas, you are talking with the wrong god.", then I heard him whimpering again.

My chuckles were interrupted when Lilith spoke to me.

' _He's near.'_

' _Who?'_

' _Xiao Long. I think he must be inside of that building up ahead.'_

Turning my gaze back to in front of me, I saw a building that had a neon sign and-

' _Is that a strip club?'_

' _I think so, yes.'_ replied Lilith.

Huh, now I understand why Vasilias said it was a good place to _stay._

"I just hope it's the happy hour.", I remarked sarcastically before turning my head to Vasilias "Follow me, Vas, I hope you have money for this one."

"Money? Why would you ask for- Oh…", he noticed which building I was walking towards.

"What's wrong? Did you remember some happy moments there?", I mocked.

"U-Uh?!", He blushed, "I-I've never been to a place lik-"

"Vas, you can't lie to me. But it's fine, I get it, sometimes you just want some relief and to look at some big titties bouncing in a hypnotizing pattern. I totally relate to you."

"R-Really?"

"No, flat is justice.", I snorted loudly before grabbing Vas by the wrist.

Few seconds later, we entered through an old wooden door, seeing that the place was dark, but with a lot of deep blue lights, mainly aimed towards a platform where a girl with a lion tail and with big breasts was pole dancing, dressed only in lingerie that was barely covering her mysteries.

The floor was ceramic, partially covered by a red carpet, and further ahead of us were several tables where different men -and a few women too- were watching the lion furry girl and cheering her on. Some of them even threw money.

That's when I noticed a muscular man with short blonde hair, blue eyes, and a blonde stubble of a beard, with a scar on his right cheek. He was dressed in a black leather jacket with an orange shirt underneath, brown pants, and brown military boots. There were two one-handed axes latched to his back. One had its handle painted in red and the other in yellow.

He was seated on a big red furred couch instead of a normal table. He threw some money at the platform before resting each of his arms wrapped around a different girl, and judging by how he was laughing, he must've been trying to impress them with a joke or something.

' _There he is.',_ I mentally stated to Lilith.

' _Looks like he's having fun.',_ she replied.

' _Maybe a bit too much even.',_ I replied.

"So, what now?", Asked Vasilias, before we were approached by two girls.

One was an ebony skinned girl with long blonde hair, green eyes, and a moderately sized bust. She wore red lingerie, along with large latex boots.

And the other one was a fair-skinned chick with short pink hair and deep blue eyes, wearing a pair of blue panties with laces, and instead of a bra, she had some kind of black tape, or band-aids or something on her breasts, barely covering the essentials.

"Well, well, look who we have here once again.", Said the ebony girl as she approached Vasilias as she licker her lips, "I knew you wanted some more, Neptune."

"H-Hey, Lucy...", Vasilias gulped audibly "H-How's everything?"

"Oh, I'm fine, but I'm feeling a little… alone, you know what I mean?", she giggled devilishly at him.

"And he brought company as well!", exclaimed the other chick who had approached me. Her breasts were… an interesting size, maybe a D or E cup? "Hey, my name's Sam. Want some good time?"

I chuckled innocently at her suggestion, "I would like to, really! But.. I have something else to do… but you can have this guy instead!", I took Vasilias by the shoulders and pushed him in front of me.

"W-What?!"

"Don't worry, I'll pay for everything.", I chuckled, "And I mean it. _Everything._ "

Both girls giggled before each taking Vasilias by one of his hands.

"W-Wait, Arc?!", he looked at me in shock.

"Don't worry, Vas, I'll be back for you once I finish this, don't you dare think you are free from me already.", I whispered in his ear before he was dragged away to a more private place.

I just hope he doesn't catch Chlamydia before I get back to him.

I resumed my walk towards the Xiao Long guy who kept talking to the... courtesans.

"And then, a big Ursa appeared out of thin air, as if by magic! And at that moment I didn't have my weapons. I was alone, just an empty bottle of whisky, but that didn't stop me from using these babies!", He flexed his arms like they were trophies as he said so, and the courtesans giggled, "And I proceeded to beat that Ursa with my bare hands!"

I didn't pay too much attention to the rest of his story as I walked up in front of them. He stared at me with a confused look, to which I then spoke in reply.

"Are you Xiao Long?"

He frowned as he got up from the couch, leaving the girls with confused looks on their faces

"Who are you?", he asked in a bitter tone.

"My name is Arc. I need your help.", I said bluntly.

He crossed his arms and scoffed, "Oh yeah? It wouldn't be the first time that I heard someone asking for help. How do I know you are not one of those Atlesian soldiers in disguise?"

"I don't even know who those guys are in first place.", I raised an eyebrow, "look, I know you know where Vernal is, so I-"

At those words he instantly grabbed one of his axes, the yellow one, "What do you know about Vernal?"

"Absolutely nothing.", I admitted, "Only that I have something that she might be interested in, and that she will help me with my current mission."

"So, that's why you go to a strip club at this hour? Only to find me?", He chuckled

"Hey, I was just following your tracks, you're the one who came here. It's not like I was the one surrounded by prostitutes in the first place."

He chuckled once again, "Hey, I was wandering through Anima for, like, two months. Can't a man like me loosen up and have some fun once a while?"

"Your fun is actually lust and gluttony. That can't be considered fun."

"Oh, so you are some kind of moralist now?", He frowned, "What do you know about me, or Vernal?"

"I know a lot of things, Xiao Long. And I can show them to you, but only if you can help me search for Vernal."

He scoffed, "Yeah, sure, and how can I trust you? Do you think I'd trust an arrogant, emo looking kid that says he knows a lot of things?"

"You don't need to trust me.", I told him in a soft voice, and he raised a brow, waiting for me to continue, "You don't have to trust me. The only thing I need is to talk to Vernal, and then, I will leave. That's the only thing I'm politely asking of you, please."

He stared at me in silence. We stayed like that for a while, just staring each other in the eyes, until he finally latched his axe back to its original position and sighed.

"I guess you're not lying after all. I guess I can give you a bit of help. Sorry about that, it's just that there are some soldiers that are chasing after me, and I don't want to cause any trouble here, it's my favorite place, after all..."

"I understand. The same happened to me, like, an hour ago!", I chuckled under my breath.

"So, what do you want to talk to Vernal about?"

"That's something I would exclusively say only to her.", I admitted, "Although, if you do agree take me to her, I can share a bit about my quest."

"I have a bike that can get us to her. Do you have any weapons?"

"Only a rusty gun and an old sword.", I chuckled, "Also, I have some company as well."

"Are they reliable?"

"He won't betray us. He already knows what would happen to him if he does something against me."

He nodded, "I guess that'll work for now. Now, if we can-"

' _Watch out, someone's about to shoot at him!', Lilith cried out in my mind like an alarm._

Quickly, I had jumped and pushed Taiyang back, away from his former position where I now stood, much for his confusion. Exactly at the same time, a bullet had reached me, and had passed through my head, however, it had gone through me as if having flown through smoke instead of flesh.

Then, it continued on its trajectory and hit the girl who was on the pole, hitting her straight in the head head and bathing the entire stage in blood.

Then, I heard screams. But I wasn't interested in watching the people running for their lives.

"Wow...", exclaimed Xiao Long, "Did that bullet just pass through you like that, like nothing?"

I chuckled, "So, you've noticed… Do you believe me now, that I'm not an Atlesian soldier?"

"Well, you're a weird, weird guy for sure, but yeah, at least I'm pretty sure you're not one of them now.", He shrugged, "But, how did they find m- Oh for fucks sake!"

I followed his glare and saw that above us, on the ceiling, there were miniature white drones with cameras, looking at us. And as soon as I had seen them, they disappeared from my sights.

"Were those things always there?," I asked, intrigued.

"I thought you would notice them, Mr. I know a lots!", He said sarcastically.

"I would, but Lilith's omniscience is being a little selective right now."

"Lilith? Who is sh-"

' _There goes another shot.'_ She informed me again.

Quickly, I raised my left hand and pointed behind the bar,where all the drinks to be served were, and with the other I grabbed Xiao Long by one of his shoulders. My mark glowed white before Xiao Long and I now found ourselves behind said bar.

I heard the sound of a bullet hitting a table, the one that was right beside where we were a moment ago.

"W-What was that?! How did we-"

"Are you really asking those questions right now?", I asked.

"What kind of Semblance do you have?", He asked.

"Why is everyone assuming that I have a semblance?", I muttered.

' _They don't know anything about magic or powers in general, they think it is something that only belongs in fantasy books.',_ replied Lilith, ' _The only thing they know about is Aura, Dust, and Semblances.'_

 _Huh, now I know why this world is like this; so trash._

"Anyways, do you have a plan?", I asked Taiyang.

"Mhmm... Nope!", he simply replied, popping the P, "What about you, _Mr. I know everything_?"

"I never said that I know everything?", I raised a brow.

"Maybe, but you sounded very arrogant, to say the least.", he scoffed.

"Are we really discussing this right now?", I said, annoyed.

"I don't see any other kind of topic to talk about, unless you have some plan to escape from here.", He retorted.

I sighed, "Alright, alright, first, we need to look for Vasilias, then we should locate the sniper that is shooting at us, and then we-"

My words died in my throat once I heard an unknown yet familiar song. Looks like the speakers were still playing.

It was… weird, confusing, yet...

 _ **Baby, it's time to make up your mind**_

 _ **I think that tonight is when our stars align**_

 _ **Honey, it's time to leave the doubt behind**_

 _ **Take my hand, you and I are gonna shine**_

I suddenly felt… strange…

I saw Pink...

Magenta...

Green…

Red…

…

P…

… Pyrr-

"Arc? Are you okay?", a foreign voice broke me out of my stupor.

I shook my head, and those colors vanished, only to see a blonde old man looking at me with a questionable look.

"Hey, Looks like you zoned out for a moment, are you ok?", he asked.

I didn't reply.

I took out my gun instead as I quickly stood up and shot at the speakers.

Then the song stopped playing. After that, my hand glowed in a brown color and a stone wall rose from the ground to shield me and Xiao Long.

"Hey! What happe- Whoah!", I cut him off as I grabbed him by the wrist after I had put back my gun into my coat again.

"Don't talk, we need to leave!", I said as we made our way out of this place.

The sniper, however, didn't stop shooting at us, but to no effect.

Seconds later we had left the main saloon, and I released Xiao Long's wrist. He rubbed it with annoyance.

"Ow, you didn't have to be so rough, you know?"

"I would politely ask you to stop crying like a kid and keep moving if you want to get out of here alive.", I told him as I turned around and began walking through the dark halls.

I could hear him sigh and then whisper, "You know, I think i'm starting to regret agreeing to help you."

"Oh, do you? Well, that's a shame, because I was planning to pay you afterwards.", I told him while still looking around and not turning towards him.

"Wait, Money?"

"Yeah, but that was before-"

"Hey, Hey, we shouldn't decide things too soon now, right?", He approached me and lightly rested a hand on my shoulder, "Soo.. how much are we talking here?"

I shrugged, "We can talk about that once I finish talking to Vernal."

"So, it's a deal then?"

I shrugged again, pulling his hand off my shoulder as I continued looking around, "Yeah, sure, why not?"

I could hear him quietly cheer behind me before he began following after me in silence. A few minutes after, he asked. "So… what happened before, when we teleported, how did you do it? And also, why did you blank ou-"

I stopped in my tracks, and he did the same in confusion.

"I usually like to talk about different topics, Xiao Long, but that last one is something that I r _eally, really don't want to talk about_.", I cut him off, and continued walking without bothering to check if he was still following me.

"…Ok… So, who is this Vasilias guy?", Xiao Long asked from behind me.

"Just a companion, nothing else.", I shrugged, "I wonder what happened with him since I left him with those-"

I cut myself off at the sound of giggles and smooches, and further ahead of us I saw a room with a red curtain as its door. It seems the lights were also lit.

' _Looks like Vasilias is having fun.',_ noted Lilith

I groaned. _'What else was I expecting?'_

"Follow me.", I said to Xiao Long, and he complied.

Both of us were now stood in front of the red curtains. I simply pushed the curtain aside and inside I saw Vasilias kissing the ebony hoe who was seated on his lap in a luxurious black chair, while the other slut was rubbing her now uncovered boobs on his forehead and rubbing her hand over his naked chest.

However, they didn't notice our arrival.

I turned to Xiao Long who had a poker face at that moment.

"Looks like we just arrived in the 'heat' of the moment.", He said

"…Was that a pun?"

"Maybe.", He turned to me and simply shrugged with a small smirk.

"Ughh.", I groaned, "This is going to be a very long mission, isn't i-!"

' _Move your head again, Arc, another bullet's coming.',_ Lilith informed me, and I tilted my head to the left.

Jst then, a bullet flew between both of us and pierced into the stomach of the ebony girl. The girl abruptly fell to the floor that was covered by a pink carpet which was now soaked in her blood.

Then I heard the screams of horror of the other girl and I saw the shocked face of Vasilias who had a little blood on his cheek.

"Well! Things escalated too fast, I think!", Xiao Long sarcastically said.

"Meh, it could be worse.", I simply shrugged.

"Who are you?!", asked the shocked girl as she covered her breast with her hands.

"My name is Arc, this man right here is Xiao Long.", I pointed at my fellow blonde with a thumb, "And we came for Vasilias.", I said as I began approaching him.

Vasilias' face at this point was between pale and green, like if he wanted to vomit but his own body denied him to do such act. the teen kept locking his eyes on the dead prostitute as his hands were still shaking like crazy.

"Looks like you are more relieved than before, Vasilias.", I said in a polite, but mocking tone as I went to his jacket which was left on a red couch. "Tell me, did you have fun?"

"I-I…"

I slowly approached him with jacket on hand, and softly cupped his right cheek, moving his head so we both locked eyes.

"Get ready, Vasilias, we are in a fight right now.", I pushed his jacked on his chest as he barely moved his hands to catch the cloth.

"W-Wait, f-fight?", He asked nervously.

"Yes, now let's get out of here."

I didn't have to wait too long until he was completely dressed. He took his weapon which was on a mini mirror table, and soon, he was in front of me with a nervous smile.

The fear that this guy emanated was too much. At this rate he won't last long and I should start writing an apology letter to his family for his soon-to-be death. If I have the time, that is.

"You know, when I said to always carry your weapons with you, I wasn't talking about your other hidden weapon."

"Heh, s-sorry, I don't know what came over me." he rubbed his neck while giving me an embarrassed smile.

"At least you had the decency to not take your pants off.", I said with narrowed eyes.

"Hey, guys, sniper shooting at us, remember?", interjected Xiao Long who was leaning on one of the brick walls.

"Let's go, Vasilias.", I said, and he nodded somewhat hesitantly. Xiao Long helped him by giving him a shoulder since he still had his legs shaking because of the recent shock.

"Hey! Are you going to leave like th-"

I shot the slut in the mouth to shut her up. At least Vasilias and Xiao Long weren't nearby to see what I did since they had already gone out the door, and if they still heard the shot, I'm sure they would think it was the sound of a thunder or the air, or something like that.

"That's your payment, bitch.", and then I proceed to walk out of the room.

I began to walk through the dark halls when Lilith spoke to me.

"Arc…"

"Glad to hear you again, Lilith. You were a little quiet this time.", I said sarcastically.

"I was thinking… about what happened to you during that song."

"…"

"Do you remember what happened?", she asked.

"…Not exactly. I just zoned out for a moment."

"But, that's never happened to you before."

"Well, maybe because it's the first time I heard a song like that. I appreciate the concern, but I'm fine.", I said bluntly.

"I'm not saying that you are not fine, but... what did you see when that happened?"

I simply shrugged, "Just colors..."

"What kind of colors?"

"Why do you care?"

"I just want to know."

"It just was simply stupid, shitty colors. Who cares about that? Are you a therapist or something?"

"Arc, don't you dare disrespect me like that. I just want to know-"

" **I DON'T REMEMBER, OKAY!"**

Suddenly, I was assaulted by a strong headache. I pressed both hands on my temples and leaned my back against one of the walls.

What kind of colors were-

"Arc? Are you okay?". Lilith's voice was full of concern.

"Lilith...", Saying her name only made my head hurt even more, like, if my head was replaced with a bomb that was going to explode.

I suddenly felt how my body fell to the floor.

"Arc!", I felt Lilith shout my name worriedly as she left my body only to cup my cheeks with her creamy hands as she now appeared before me.

"Lilith… My head hurts…" I said pathetically to her. Her red veil hid most of her face, with the exception of her pinkish lips, their concerned grimace showing how worried she was in that moment.

Then, a faint, dark shadow filled the surroundings, and I could hear a voice.

" _ **I told you, blonde man, I'm keeping an eye on you."**_

I heard that voice before…

And just like that, the encroaching shadows simply ceased and vanished, along with my extreme headache, though it still hurt a bit.

"Arc... Did you see that thing?"

"Yes… The Wicked Rose.", I bitterly snickered as I began to weakly stand up again with her help. Man, that was a strong headache, I haven't felt something like that in years.

"So, that's our main enemy.", She said like she was processing it, "but how did she find us?"

"Maybe she is the one who is messing with your omniscience, Lilith.", I chuckled.

"Huh. That's... not funny."

"No. Not at all.", I weakly smiled, "Though I wonder what she meant with-"

"ARC!", came Xiao Long's voice from within the distance, along with the sound of... people screaming in horror?

"What happened?", I whispered.

"ARC! HELP!", I also heard Vasilias' yelling, now along with the sound of shots being fired and beasts roaring.

"I think we should go now.", Said Lilith as she vanished, and I felt how Lilith's light weight was added on to my own once again.

Quickly, I ran through the opened door that was a few meters in front of me, and immediately, my attention was caught by two things.

For one, Xiao Long had taken out and was swinging his axes at two dark beasts that looked like bears, and Vasilias had taken out his own, shooting at five other such beasts that looked like wolves.

"…For fuck's sake guys, I just got a headache and now I have to go through this shit?", I said rubbing my temples.

"We a bit more concerning issues than your fucking headache Arc! Now move and help us!", yelled Xiao Long before jumping at one of the dark bears and cleaving it in half with both axes.

I scoffed. How could nobody care about the headache of a god? That at least should be the premonition of no less than five natural disasters.

Then, pulling me away from my thoughts, I abruptly heard a loud, infernal screech.

" **RAGGHHHH!"**

It was so loud and harrowing, that even the other creatures fled in terror at its sounds.

"What was that?!", Said Vasilias, also horrified.

"Oh no…", Xia Long said, looking as if he was expecting the worst.

Then, I heard another scream, this time, of a man.

" **GET AWAY FROM ME!"**

"Someone's in trouble!", said Vasilias, "We need to-"

He was interrupted as he turned towards Xiao Long who had approached him and caught him by the hand, Neptune returning a confused look to Xiao Long's concerned one.

"We need to leave. Now."

"But-"

"No. It's too dangerous, you heard that thing. No one survives against it. No one."

At those words Neptune looked at him, his eyes were begging him, but Xiao Long only gently shook his head.

"The village is fucked, we can't do anything. Sorry.", He sighed, "We'll see if we can rescue the survivors. My motorcycle is near here, and-", He trailed off once I walked by him as I looked towards where the screech had come from.

"Arc?"

I didn't answer. I took out a bottle of Ron, and I downed it in one go, in just a few seconds.

Then, I spoke, but but not to them, to Lilith.

"Say, Lilith, Where's this beast?"

"Fifteen meters east of this place."

I nodded in silence as I looked at the empty bottle. I turned to Xiao Long and I simply smiled.

"Want to see a god fight?"

I dropped the empty bottle, and before I could get an answer, I turned around and ran to my objective.

"Arc!", Yelled Xiao long from behind me, "Wait! It's too dangerous!"

"There are worse things than some roaring beast we had yet to encounter, Xiao Long , Xiao Long.", I yelled back laughing.

"Arc! Wait for us at least!", called out Vasilias, panting, he and Xiao long a few feet in toe of me as we ran through the silent and dark village that now surrounded as after we had left the club. There were fires here and there along the streets, as well as several damaged houses.

As I ran, I ended up kicking some random wooden hammer. It seemed to draw my attention for a moment.

Anyways, leaving that distraction aside, I kept running until I finally saw it.

A beast that looked like a mix between an imp with horns and a horse, slowly walking towards a man that was on the ground with his left arm injured, lying next to a wooden bow.

"He is…"

"Li Ren.", Lilith finished my words.

"The name that you said before. How can that man help us?", I asked.

"First, we'll have to save him. He should be able to give us some information on Mistral and Atlas, as well as procure us a means of transport, since Xiao Long's bike likely wouldn't be enough for the three of us, and also, this'll be a good way for us to show our strength and to prove to our allies that we are trustworthy."

"Sounds good, but thit will probably also give us new enemies to fight.", I said

"But more allies that can help us as well.", she argued back.

Huh, sounds smart.

" **RAGHGHH!",** The beast shrieked once again.

"Arc!", I turned around only to see my two tagalongs panting a few meters behind me.

"W-What is that?!", Vasilias yelled as he pointed to the beast.

Said beast turned its gaze to Vasilias and I and screamed again.

" **RAGHGHGH!"**

"A-A Nuklelavee…", Said Xiao Long with a knot in his throat, "A-Arc, what are you going to do?"

I scoffed, "Watch, and stay back.", Then I turned to the beast.

Its horse head huffed at me, black smoke spreading out of its nostrils, while the imp one had a twisted smirk as it slowly moved its large, dark arms in an intimidating manner.

Li Ren, who was still on the ground, tried to move, until I called out to him.

"Stay there, Li Ren. Attracting its attention while it's still alive will only make this harder than necessary."

The man, after hearing my words, stared at me in shock. Perhaps he was asking himself who was I, and why did I look so calm?

If he'd asked it, my answer would have been: _Boy, consider yourself lucky for never having to meet the horrors of Helheim and Malebolge._

" _ **RAHGHAG"**_

The beast suddenly threw out its large hands to me, they extending, slamming against the ground and making the earth tremble. The ground, since I had already dodged by jumping high, fifteen meters into the sky to be precise, as well as a few meters to the side, further away from where Vasilias, Xiao Long and Li Ren were standing.

Time seemed to go slower in that moment while the imp looked at me with ire in its red eyes.

'A bit enthusiastic this beast, isn't it?', Said Lilith.

'How should I execute this beast, Lilith?'

'Be elegant and lethal, but don't use all of your strength. Have fun with it first, and then, go in for the kill.', She replied in an elegant and refined tone, and I nodded.

The imp threw its limbs to the sky with the intention of catching me. But then, I dispersed in the wind, like ashes, but only to reform again on its left forearm.

With my old sword and with little effort, I tore the arm off, the act accompanied by its pained screams. The limb slammed to the ground, soiling the dark streets with its black blood.

The beast, with its other arm, attempted to swat me away, or pull me off its body, but I teleported to the ground below, beside its feet, before it had a chance..

With sword in hand, I charged against it, but instead of slashing at its body, I dashed below its torso, the horse-like one, and then, I thrusted my sword into its abdomen as I took out my gun and shot four times at each of its feet before I stood up again, having already appeared behind it from my former position of underneath it but moments ago.

The beast screeched and whimpered as its feet buckled,, lifting a good amount of dust in the process of its fall.

The imp, with its remaining limb, began swinging at me as though it were a whip.. Seven times I counted, seven times that it slammed down its arm with unbridled fury, invoking wreckage and destruction, sundering houses and trees with each of its blows. But every time the beast tried to whip at me with its arm, I easily dodged it by teleporting within a few meters of my former position, the force of the shockwave strong enough to make gusts that caused my coat to wave like a flag.

By its eighth attempt, I jumped onto its limb, and the imp recoiled the arm in a way that it launched me back into the sky.

I was now in the air, above the beast which was preparing its next attack; maybe catching me in the air and slamming my body down towards the cold ground, and perhaps repeat it several times until all my bones were broken.

Too bad for it, because that or whatever else it had in mind will never happen.

I pointed my hand at the beast. Immediately after, a white light began shining from the horse's torso.

" _CROCEA!",_ I yelled, and the sword that I had left embedded in the beast's torso pushed even deeper into it, until it passed from below, through its stomach, making a volcano of black blood erupt in the process

" **RAFGHJGH!",** its cries once again echoed as my sword came back to me. I returned my gun back to my coat as I began falling towards the middle of the beast's back, from where the volcano of blood was spraying and soiling the surrounding streets.

I took my sword in both arms, and then, with little effort, I sliced the beast in half, detaching its back and front, creating a torrent of blood in the process.

" **ARGH!",** The beast yelled.

I threw my sword to the air as I teleported forward and grabbed the head of the horse beast which had a mixture of wrath and pain in its eyes.

The sword finally landed as I pulled down its head, and where it had fallen was utop its neck. Grabbing the now embedded Crocea Mors, I proceed to fully cut through it. A deep and clean cut.

I then threw its horse head at the imp, hitting and stunning it for a couple of seconds before jumping and taking the beast by its white horns and slamming it onto the ground with a force enough to make the earth tremble once again.

The beast stopped shrieking, but whimpered instead, like an innocent deer that was just shot by an arrow.

I returned Crocea Mors to my coat. Then, I the imp's head by its horns. The beast screamed in pain once more as I continued to pull, until its neck began to tear.

" **RAGHGHGAGH!",** it let out one final howl of pain before its head was finally torn off its body, making it so that yet even more of its devilish, black blood began spilling out from the wound, soiling the ground , and also my face and hands.

I raised the head with my left hand like a prize and turned around only to see the faces of Vasilias and Xiao Long in a…

How do you call a face that is half shocked and half amazed?

' _Flabbergasted, Catatonic, Astonished…'_

' _Thanks for invading my personal thoughts again, Lilith.'_

' _You're welcome.'_ , She giggled.

Sigh…

I dropped the head of the beast to the ground as it began to fade like smoke.

Suddenly, I heard the sounds of steps coming towards me.

It was Vasilias.

"Wow… How did you do that?", He asked as his eyes were carefully inspecting the massacred beast.

"Tell me, what do you think I did?", I asked.

He stared at me in silence for two minutes straight, until he finally said.

"Are you really… a god?", he said in a still sceptical tone.

I smirked, "Do you think I was lying before?"

"I… I don't know how to answer that...", He said as he looked to the ground, "And what kind of god are you?"

"Not a good one, but not an evil one either. Just a murderous one.", I stoically asserted

"And do you usually do… 'this' to your enemies?"

I shrugged.

"Perhaps. If you keep following me, then you will find your answer."

"Hey, can one of you guys give me a hand?", Vasilias and I turned towards the voice that had interrupted us only to see Xiao Long helping Li Ren up and to move by lending him one of his shoulders.

Vasilias quickly went to help the injured man by carefully taking his waist and left hand.

"Hey, are you alright?", Vasilias softly asked to the injured man.

"I... I will survive.", Said the man before locking eyes with me, "Thank you…"

"Arc, just Arc."

"Arc, thank you, for saving my life.", He weakly smiled, "I've never seen a man fight like you fought. Are you a huntsman by any chance?"

"Not at all.", I shook my head.

"Hey, I think we should look for a doctor right now.", Said Xiao, concerned.

"I have medicines and bandages back in my house, if it is still standing…", Said Li Ren.

"Well, I don't see why not try that.", I shrugged.

"Don't you have any healing powers, Arc?", Vasilias asked me, and in response I glared at him, "R-Right…"

"Guys, we have to move, now.", Said Xiao Long.

"I'll protect you in case something happens.", I said as I took out my gun, "Don't get used to it."

"By the way, wasn't there a sniper around here trying to shoot us a few minutes ago?", Asked Vasilias as we began to move.

"Maybe they escaped when the horde of Grimm arrived.", Suggested Xiao Long.

"Or maybe they died...", I said before yawning and stretching my arms, "Where should we go now?"

"Keep going down from this path to the left, please.", Said Li Ren before slightly coughing.

"Don't worry, everything will be okay.", Comforted Xiao Long.

Everything will be okay…

Hah…

That indeed...

Was a very good joke…

* * *

 _ **Author Notes:**_

 ** _Kind of sad chapter, with some violence too, to be honest, but still very interesting to write._**

 ** _This is the first mature story I write, and I'm enjoying it a lot. Probably some people would think that Jaune became a Gary Stu or the Edgy kid or that the story has cliches, but I think, in my own opinion, that the idea of well, a god is literally being a Gary Stu! You know, Gods can do whatever they want (Though they are being subject to certain human laws) and being the representation of a human characteristic or natural disasters. I know the idea of Jaune being OP is boring, and I understand. I don't like it too, but for this story is necessary, since the story is 900 years after Jaune went from a simple mortal to a dangerous god. So it would be obvious that he had changed. Time always affects personality as people get new experiences that change them, for good, or for bad._**

 ** _Jaune is not a knight anymore; Remnant is not a beautiful place anymore. And nothing is the same anymore in this story._**

 ** _But that doesn't mean some things from the past can't come back, it doesn't have to be just bad memories._**

 ** _We are still at the beginning of the fic, and we didn't even touch the real main story, so the only thing I'll ask you is to have patience, and to have fun reading this story._**

 ** _Please, let a review on the review section, I always like to read them and answer them. If you have something to say, I will like to hear it!_**

 ** _Next chapters aren't going to have too much violence, at least until Arc arrives to Haven academy, so expect more dialogues and edgy shit (Yeah I like to make fun of Edginess and Mary sues) than punches and blades and cool powers._**

 ** _I hope you enjoyed the chapter, Thanks once again to my Beta reader, The Path of a writer (He does write fics too) and see you next update!_**


	8. Chapter 8: Time To Kill

**Chapter 8: Time To Kill**

"Great General Ironwood!", shouted Qrow, the right hand of the general, as he ran towards the private office of him, "We have bad and good news!"

Crow entered to the office where was totally dark, with exception of a large screen where several coordinates and plans were showed.

In the middle of the screen, there was a chair and a man that couldn't be seen.

"What's the matter now, commandant Branwen?" The general asked.

"The sniper that we contracted… disappeared", the tall, red eyed man informed.

"How come?", said the general, a bit confused by his words.

"There was an incident in the village of Kuroyuri. We couldn't determine what happened and-"

"So that means Xiao Long escaped again?" The general growled

"We couldn't determine, Sir. But there's something that I think you would be interested in-"

"You know how many times we have lost that man, Mr. Branwen? We can't let this prisoner to spread the information of our experiments to the rest of the world"

"I know sir, but let me speak first about what happened. With your permission, of course", the commandant said as he cleared his voice.

The general stayed in silence as he raised a brow to the man in front of him

"You see sir

"And what are you expecting, Qrow? Show it already!"

"Immediately, Sir!" Qrow took out his scroll and suddenly the screen started to play a video

In there, there was a man of blonde hair with a large coat, fighting against a nukelavee. What was more interesting of the video was how the blonde man was moving and how he was fighting. He teleported between places like magic and how he stabbed the beast in the torso of the horse and then how the sword went back to its carrier like magic.

It was like watching how smoke and darkness was fighting against a beast, but, who was really the beast in that moment?

"Let me guess… the man from the Vale news, Arc, isn't he?"

"Affirmative, Sir." Said Crow "Those were the images that the drones recorded during its time in Kuroyuri. It looks like Xiao Long is now accompanying him"

"It's the only thing that the drones could record?"

"Unfortunately yes, sir. You see, the drones were abruptly disconnected when a large amount of Grimm hordes attacked the village"

"I see... what happened to that village?"

"We don't know anything yet, sir. We are still trying to investigate what happened and we are thinking of sending Miss Winter there to investigate there, but we need your permission to do it"

"Permission denied. Sending Winter now would be pointless. Send more drones to the affected zone if they can find any clues about Xiao Long and Arc in there. But for now, send a patrol to investigate the attacked village and proportionate help to the affected people"

"Understood, Sir. We have a group of 20 people ready to fly at , sir"

"Excellen.t and what about our sniper?"

"We haven't received any information about him yet, General. The signal with our sniper was affected after the Grimm horde attacked the village"

Ironwood sighed in resignation, "A shame. At least he knows how to survive in dangerous situation like this… You can leave now, Qrow. Thanks for informing me as always"

"Yes sir, thanks sir", Qrow bowed his head before leaving the office.

Ironwood sighed as he turned at the frozen image of Arc holding the head of the beast while covered of dark blood.

"First a high security prisoner that escaped and now a younger assassin that killed Ozpin…."

The general let out a laugh.

"The world keeps surprising me more and more. And as per usual, there's more scum in this planet that needs to be eliminated…"

The general smiled as he stared at the face of the blonde young man

"I don't know who you think you are, but to keep this world clean from evil, I shall eliminate you"

"So the world becomes a pure one, once again."

I kicked the locked door of Li Ren's house and this opened immediately.

"Here we are, gentlemen. Home sweet home", I said stoically as I entered to the house.

"Did you have to destroy the door?" Complained Xiao Long. In his shoulder with help of Vasilias, were carrying an injured Li Ren.

"Faster is better.", I said sarcastically as I turned on the lights. Unfortunately not all of them were working some well, so was still dark

Looks like the house was still standing, despite of the broken windows. I could fix them later, I don't like getting cold in nights like this.

"Don't worry, Mr. Ren, you will be fine. Do you have something like a first aid kit or something?", asked Xiao Long.

"I-In my room. In the night table. Just a little more…", said Li Ren weakly.

"Do you live alone, Li Ren?" I asked, looking at the ruined houses from the broken windows.

"I don't think it's a good time to ask that?" Xiao Long growled.

I scoffed, "I'm not asking him complex math, I'm just curious"

"I… I've never married.", Li Ren answered, "I never had the necessity to marry, now that I think about it."

"Well we are two my friend", said Xiao Long emphatically.

I walked a little more until I found myself in a living room with green walls. In there, there was a green large couch, a wooden table in the middle, and on a black carpet.

At the right, there was fireplace that still contained some wood on it.

A little fire ball appeared on my fingertips and I threw it towards them.

Good, now I was standing in a cute scene that could work for Christmas images or letters!

 _That would be it if I had a family to send letters_ I sighed as I proceeded to fix the windows and the door that I broke moments ago.

After doing my chores I felt the steps of a person behind me entering to the living room and sitting on the couch.

I turned my head and saw Vasilias sulking while he was looking at the white ceiling, like if he was expecting an answer from there.

"What's the matter now?" I asked as I sat next to him.

"Is that even a question?", He said exasperated as he turned his face to me, "A lot happened in this night and I don't know how to feel"

"Well I have to admit this is not the five star hotel that I promised you"

"Wait when did you-"

"But at least we are still alive, ready to fight, because that's what matter, being alive to ask to yourself "What the fuck am I doing right now?" and the answer is…"

"… What?"

I stared at him in silence for a couple of seconds until I took a bottle of whisky and started drinking it.

"Really?"

"What? Did you really wanted me to tell you the answer? C'mon! There's not a real answer! After all, nothing has a real answer, life doesn't make sense, and everything and everyone that you meet is going to die and you can't do anything do about it."

"…."

"…."

"….."

"… Well at least that's what supposed to happen, in theory ,but sometimes that can fail…"

Vasilias whimpered as he looked at the ground

"Great, now you make him more depressed", said Lilith out loud. I could feel the shock on Vasilias' body as he heard her voice again.

"I'm not a therapist", I exclaimed.

She sighed in exasperation , "Look, it's easy, Vasilias; this is not the worst situation anyone could have been"

"At least not yet", I said before Lilith shushed me to shut up

"But as long as we stay together, everything will be alright"

"I don't know if I can trust you in that", said Vas, "I mean, what happened inside the club, and what just happened now... it's just…"

"You're scared", I said finally.

Vas turned to me in confusion.

"I can feel it, the anxiety, and the fear. You are not scared of being here; you are scared of dying, your smell says everything"

"S-Smell?"

"I understand if you are scared, and how you cannot be? We are probably the only people alive in this dirty fucking village", I chuckled as I got closer to him, "Probably the only survivors that will be able to tell the story of how everything went from zero to one hundred real fucking quick!"

"Arc, stop.", said Lilith.

"Look." I put one of my hands on one of his shoulders, "What I'm trying to say is that you, indeed, are a _survivor_. That is a fact. Not many people can say they're survivors. Be happy for what you have, be happy for feel your heart still breathing and how your brain still works, if you're scared that means your spirit is still alive"

"T-Then what we do now?", He asked, this time calmer than earlier.

"Follow the rules, don't be a hero, and the most important part."

I pulled him closer, watching his eyes full of anxiety

"Don't. Look. Behind. And keep moving forward."

"Can you stop scaring the kid?"

In that minute, Xiao Long appeared in front of us in the hall

"I know you are a strong warrior because of what happened back before, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't harass the kid" He told me.

"Harassing? Who's harassing? Me?", I spoke in a fake hurtful voice, "It's not my fault the poor kid was just a few seconds to piss his pants cause were trapped in a tiny house"

"Piss what?"

"H-How is Mr. Ren, Mr. Xiao Long?" asked Vasilias, changing the topic.

He sighed, "It was a bit hard, but I could stop the hemorrhage. Fortunately the wound wasn't too deep. Now he's resting in his bed."

"So what now?" Asked Vasilias

"I guess we can wait for tomorrow to leave", said the old blonde, "We are stuck here for now so the better option .

"And I don't know if I could do that after of what I saw this night." Said Xiao Long who sat next to me, "I need a drink..."

"Who made you the boss?", Xiao Long said annoyed.

"Since I'm the only one who is not complaining or crying like a bitch?"

He scowled, " Tch, Fuck you. I'm gonna watch if there's liquor in the fridge."

I took out one my whisky bottles from my coat "You can have one from my inventory if you wan-"

Suddenly the old bag grabbed it and took a large sip of the drink.

"Well, at least you can do something good for a change, thanks, Gary Stu!"

"… I will remember that insult.", I stated.

"Yeah, well whatever!", he said as he took another zip and sat in the couch, "I don't care anymore. Nothing can go worse than being stuck in a house with two brats and a wounded man in the room"

"I don't know, anything can happen, Xiao Long"

"You know that I have a name, right?" He said a little annoyed.

"I always preferred to call people by the surname." I answered.

"Why?" Asked Vasilias.

I shrugged, "Surnames are the most important things in the world. They show where you belong and where you always will be. Doesn't matter what, your surname is what will always shine, not your name."

"Wow, that statement was so poetic, almost made me cry", Noted Xiao Long sarcastically

I shrugged, "Keep laughing Xiao long, but every word that I say it's just a part of the truth."

He just rolled his eyes in boredom.

"In what kind of world you have been? Because seriously, I have been in serious shit back then but I don't see the world like that." He asked curiously.

"Well, that because you didn't get killed before you real adventure started", I muttered.

"What you mean?"

Then in that minute, I heard the sound of knocks on the door.

"What was that?" Asked Vasilias a little scared.

"Someone is knocking the door." Xiao Long said, there was no need to be an expert to know that.

I stood up as I said "I'm going to take a look. Take your weapons just in case."

As I walked towards the door, I spoke, this time to Lilith

"Hey, are you there?", I asked.

"I always am", she answered.

"Can you see who it's in the door?"

"Worry not, Arc. He doesn't emanate a negative aura towards us."

"It's an enemy?, a soldier? or a survivor"

"Open the door, and you will see." She asserted

I rolled my eyes at her cryptic answer and opened the door, then in front of me, a man who wore a white large coat, white pants, white boots, white gauntlets and a grey shirt, stood silently in front of the house. He reminds me of one of those hashashins from Alexandria and Damascus, with the slight difference that he was wearing a white helmet that covered his face and one of his eyes.

"May I know who are you?" I asked, yet he didn't answer.

Instead, he knelt in front of me with a hand on his chest, then he said

" _Murderers we born, and murderers we'll die. No matter the consequences, our life is to be the executors of the earth._ "

.. What he is talking abo- Oh!

 _Oh… I wasn't expecting this at all._

"… _A murder doesn't murder for the reward, but for the only satisfaction of the filth, yet glorious action, of homicide._ ", I replied.

" _Our hands, our bodies, our souls, covered by the blood of the weak_ " He continued

" _We kill the weak to be stronger. Blood is for what we live and for what we will die_ " I spoke again

" _Saint patron of all murderers, guide our hands and blades to take the right path towards the throats of our enemies._ "

" _And let the wise Lilith guide our minds between the chaos and insanity of our world and our minds_ "

We stared there in silence for a few seconds until I said "You can get up"

He complied and said "I heard the stories, I saw the news, but I never thought that I will be able to see the god of murder in front of me"

"Let me see your mark, and then, your face." I demanded.

He did what I asked. He took one of his gauntlets and in his left wrist there was a black tattoo of my mark _The Arc Mark_.

"A nice and clean mark", I observed.

"Thanks.", he said proudly.

"Now, your helmet, take it off and show me your face", I told him.

He slowly started to take of his helmet, until I saw a teen of blue eyes and white short hair.

We stayed in deep silence for some seconds before I spoke;

"Were you the sniper who was shooting at us?" I asked.

He nodded, "Yes, but I don't have the desire of shooting at you or any of your allies no longer once I witness your fighting against the nukelavee and noticed that you were indeed, the Murderer God."

"Tell me your name, Sniper"

"Whitley, my name is Whitley Schnee"

"Arc? Are you- Who is he?", Xiao Long asked still with bottle in hand as he pointed to the young man who just presented at me

I chuckled as I clap my hands together

"Guess what? My cult is here!"

Then, a long silence arrived, until I heard Vasilias yelling.

"Arc has a what?! I couldn't hear very well from here!"

Well, it looks like we have a lot to explain…

"So, you are the sniper who was sent to kill me", Xiao Long said, he was seating on the couch with a defiant look on his eyes.

"Yes, but not anymore" Schnee nodded, he was sitting on the floor on the carpet, near of the fire, calmly drinking a cup of wine that I just gave him.

I hope Li Ren doesn't get mad for using his special cutlery.

"How did you find us?", Asked Vasilias, who was drinking just water.

"I followed you by jumping between roof and roof.", He answered, "But not before shooting the drones to deactivated them."

"A smart move indeed.", I said, as I took a sip of the whisky bottle, "It surprised me how I never noticed where you were shooting."

"Thanks to my semblance of course.", He smiled, "Everyone needs a especial trick if you want to survive in a place like Mistral"

"I suppose youre right", shrugged Xia long, "… but, do you know what Ironwood or his men told you for this mission?"

"Unfortunately no. they just gave the coordinates, a picture of the objective and a transport to go to this village and for once I've finished the mission. But well, it looks I have a new quest to do." he chuckled before taking another sip of wine.

"Wait, we never agreed that you could accompany us"

"I never needed to ask for permission, Xiao Long. And besides, is not like we can't separate, since were trapped in this village together", he said with a smugly smile that made Xiao Long angry.

"Why didn't you tell us you have a cult Arc?" Asked Vasilias curiously.

"I have a better question, Why the fuck you have a cult in the first place?!", Yelled Xiao long as he pointed at me

I just shrugged "Don't remember, I was doing stuff one day when some weird guy started following me, then it grow up to a large group, and then I got tired and killed everyone but the first weird guy, and I think he started to spread 'my word.', I was uninterested and annoyed at this at first but then Lilith told me that it was a good thing and that could help me, so I made some kind of deal, and that was it."

There was some silence after that. Silence that was broken by Xiao Long.

"That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard."

"Pfft, Well, If you don't like my stories then don't ask.", I shrugged, "I came here for a mission, not to explain who am I and my diabolic and nefarious plan"

That seemed to interest Schnee's attention, "Are you in some kind of mission, Arc?".

"Yes, I have to find the relics that there are in the four huntsman academies. I already have one from Beacon, and I'm actually looking for the Mistral one", I said

"Why?" Asked Xiao Long.

"To keep them safe and away from the hands of dark spirits that can use them for their own good and, well, destroy the world or, the universe, I don't exactly remember what the contract sai." I explained.

"Contract?", repeated Xiao Long confused

"Wait? Something like the universe being destroyed can happen?" Asked Vasilias surprised.

"With the enough power? Yes" I nodded, and they were silent for a moment before I continued "But that's why I'm here so it won't happen."

"You talk like if you were some kind of a God.", Scoffed Xiao Long.

I stared at him in silence and chuckled in front of him

"What's so funny?", the old man asked confused.

"I'm a god, Xiao Long.", I said with a smile

He laughed a bit, but when he saw everyone's serious face he scowled.

"Prove it"

"You don't want to see that, Xiao Long", Schnee said calmly as he approached him, "Perhaps I haven't seen yet Arc's true power, but in the Library of my cult's basement there are drawings of **what he can do,** and you don't want to see it."

The old man rolled his eyes, "Ah c'mon I'm not afraid, if he's a real god then he can show something like uh, I don't know, what can you do?"

"Mhmm…", I hummed, "What do you want to see?"

'Don't scare him', told me Lilith.

I nodded as the mark of my hand changed to a purple color. Then I looked at the cups that started to have a purple aura surrounding them.

"What is he doing?" Vasilias muttered as he stared at the bottles who suddenly started to float in the sky.

"Huh, telekinesis? Not bad but I saw it before", he said raising a brow, looking at the bottles

"Not exactly telekinesis, more like gravity power", Schnee corrected.

I sighed, "I show you a non-lethal power and that's how thank me…", I said as I put the bottles on the table again

"Okay, let's just say I believe you, if that makes you feel good. If you really are you a god, why you don't look like one?", Asked Xiao Long.

"What do you mean?", I asked.

"I mean, you look like… a kid? Well, more like an emo kid"

"That's because I was a human before," I admitted, "But I got killed in the process."

"Killed? Then how you are-"

"May I answer that question?", Schnne asked politely.

"Please, do", I nodded, and then we turned to see Schnee who left his cup on the table.

"Alright, this is the story of a little kid who only wanted to be a hero" He started solemnly

" _Once upon a time, there was a little kid who born in a family of warriors. His father and mother were humans that fought against the darkness a long time ago. They give born to eight sons, seven were female, and just one was a boy._

 _The boy was someone who always liked to read books about adventures and stories of knights fighting against dragons, saving princesses and protecting the innocents._

 _He wanted to be like one of them, but there was a problem: He was the weakest of them all. He tried to do everything just to make his parents proud, but he never could fight like a real warrior._

 _His father was disappointed of him and refused to call him his son. His mother, though she would never say it, was ashamed to give birth to someone like him._

 _He found a little of comfort on his sisters, but anyways, they always thought he was pathetic, but they know they couldn't say that to his face,he was just a weak parasite that was looking for comfort._

 _The boy, tired of just being a simple joke to everyone, decided to show what he can really do. He may not have good fighting skills, but he had a smart mind that always help him during hard times! He always wanted to see the good side of things._

 _But that only sealed his fate_

 _He faked his transcripts to begin his new adventure, he was innocent of the world that surrounded somehow he entered to a prestigious warrior academy. But despite of being very smart and strategic, it wasn't enough._

 _He was ridiculed, bullied. And even hurt, for being weak, for being a failure, for being a faker_

 _He wanted to become in a hero, but what he received instead?_

 _A girl that looked innocent at first, but inside had a rotten soul that loved to bully the boy along with everyone else and even spit him, saying that trash should belong in the trash can_

 _A girl that belonged to royalty that fell in love with her at first, but that ridiculed exposed in front of everyone for his attempts to go out on a date with her. She even beat him very harsh saying that he will never become in a huntsman_

 _A warrior girl that she thought she was in love with him, until she snapped and finally saw a dumb and pitiful attempt of a knight, ashamed of being the partner of this boy, and sulking every time she was alone about why the brothers gave her such a failure like him._

 _A boy that never wanted to get close to the knight boy, but used the word brother with the boy in a sarcastic manner only to make fun of the boy. He was never interested on that boy and that's why he never talked with him less than five words._

 _A girl that was always cheery and friendly with everyone, with everyone except with the boy. She liked to break his legs, saying it was only for training, and several times she insulted him in the face, but how he was a weakling, he couldn't do anything._

 _A warrior girl that liked to use her fist to fight, and that like to use his weak body to practice her punches, and leaving him with several bruises and wounds, but not without spitting at him before leaving the boy in the ground crying for mercy._

 _And a mysterious girl that, despite of not being friends or anything, always ignored his cries of help when he was being hurt by a group of teen warriors; sometimes even taking pictures and sharing them with everyone in the academy._

 _Those people, those "friends", were nothing more than demons, nothing than dark souls that only wanted to see the boy to suffer and cry_

 _and when they had the opportunity to exterminate the plague of their world, they didn't think twice_

 _One day, the headmaster of said academy, found the transcripts of the boy, thanks to the investigation of a teacher that never liked to see the boy in the academy were was supposed to only be the best and only the best._

 _The headmaster expulsed him, and the boy left the academy crying defeated, knowing that he will never be a knight. he walked in shame, hearing the laughs of people who made fun of him during all his life._

 _To escape, he accidentally ran into a forest that he was never there before, but then he noticed that he wasn't alone._

 _The demons followed him, knowing about his transcripts, and they proceed to what they called, "divine justice"._

 _They kicked him, they tore off his clothes and armor, they destroyed his face, broke one of his legs and broke his spirit._

 _Then, the female warrior took a spear and stabbed the knight near the heart, impaling him on a tree, and then, the other followed her_

 _The "innocent" girl cut his chest with a scythe_

 _The royal girl stabbed him with her rapier on the abdomen_

 _The mysterious girl and the other boy shoot him in the legs and arms_

 _The warrior girl punched him in his face, leaving him without teeth and with his nose broken._

 _The ninja stabbed him in the eyes so he couldn't see anymore._

 _And the bouncy, happy girl used a hammer to break his ribs and legs._

 _The seven demons, satisfied with their job done, started to make their path towards the academy, when they felt that they couldn't move. A thick dark fog was surrounding them. The fog became in dark arms that caught the demons and started to slowly and painfully take out their skin like the layers of a simply onion._

 _The demons cried, begged, and screamed in pain, but the arms didn't listen them. They took out their skin, they tore off their flesh, they broke their bones, they sliced their organs and they even ripped off their genitals with sharply large claws that looked like cold and sharp metal._

 _However, they didn't die. they had to experience that cruel punishment that destroyed their minds and bodies for the rest of the eternity. Crying and suffering for the rest of their life, along with the world that watched the impaled knight and did nothing to save him._

 _Except, a spirit of knowledge that saved the soul and flesh of the weak knight that surprisingly, was still fighting to be alive. A spirit called Lilith, saved him from death; and she comforted him and took care of him._

 _When the knight was once safe, he understood that things will never be the same again, that his life will never be the same, and that his own heart will never beat again, thanks to the sins that succumbed his world and almost killed him in the process._

 _as he entered to another world, he soon learned there are place where he will never be welcomed, because he carries a curse, a curse that every mortal after the gods that created his world abandoned their creation without a chance of salvation. The spirit tried to convince the angels to let him enter, but they were merciless against the souls that never meet the True God, as they called it_

" _The Sons of Remmant will always be cursed!"_

 _As he was thrown out of purgatory and sent to hell, his heart became stone, his eyes died in two cold balls of ice; his organs went putrid, and his mind, always corrupted by the horrors of hell._

 _Remembering the laughs, the pranks, the disappointments, and the betrayal. the man decided he won't be another condemned._

 _he fought, he killed, and he suffered, but he never fell, he never gave up, he did not die. he became the slayer of demons, making them fear so much they named him The emperor of the circle of violence._

 _The man became a king, but it wasn't enough to be satisfied, he promised to himself that he will show everyone what a simple soul can do to the world, to the universe._

 _He is the murder itself, the hand of death, the insatiable slayer, and everyone will suffer by his hands._

 _he left hell, looking after new and different worlds and realms, to train, to learn, to experience, to fight and kill, and the dream of the knight in shining armor shattered and banished forever in his mind_

 _The white knight became in a murderer and executor, and in a god that was never in the same place for too long. He fought in so many war and so many adventures; he participated in the great titanomakia, he helped the Aesir to kill the giant Ymir and create the lands of Midgard,._

 _And through time, The history marked him with different names: The Black Prior, The chained gunslinger, The plague doctor,The insatiable ripper ,The demon of Pripyat_

 _And of course,_ _ **The Yellow Death**_

 _These, and hundreds of names more, give fear and sorrow to the hearts of mortals that dare challenging the man who lost everything but nothing of value at the same time._

 _although the murderer god never remembered the faces of those who killed him when he was a simply human, he never forgot the stories that Lilith, his only companion that he could trust, told him during his inmortal life, and he learned that:_

 _Innocence is just ignorance, a mask that hides the potential demon behind the soul of a man._

 _Royalty does mean nothing and that at the end, everyone, no matter how poor or rich, human or demi human, is going to die, and that everything has an end, except._

 _Brotherhood is just a lie that doesn't have anything in concrete and it's pointless. You can have allies, you can have people that you can appreciate, but what you only need at the end, it's only your own person._

 _Happiness is just an illusion that the weak use to comfort themselves in a world where nothing has a meaning._

 _To never comfort those who are weaker than you. Because weaklings only deserve death._

 _To never show mercy to those that beg mercy, because mercy only means weakness._

 _And that Love is not real. Just a cruel illusion that the mind does to break you you could really trust, is in the valor of the strength of the mind and soul, to be always open to new experiences and to never had remorse, because remorse only stops you inside instead of helping you to keep going and become stronger."_

" _And that's how, the boy, the knight, who always had a warm smile on his face even in the worst of the times, became the murder itself, not for vengeance, not for anger, but for the glory of his acts, everyone will know his name, and his enemies will suffer, for the rest of eternity.", Schnee finished as he took out another sip of his wine._

The living room stayed quiet for a long time, until I clapped warmly at the story.

"Ah, such a beautiful story, good job", I said.

"Woah… that was… depressing.", Said Xiao Long quietly.

"And you never watched them again?" Asked Vasilias a bit shaky

"Nope, and I don't have reasons to do it. I have enough with what Lilith told me in the past" I asserted.

"…Seriously, who is Lilith?" asked Xiao Long annoyed "You talk about her like if she is around but I never saw her!"

"Are you talking about me, Xiao Long?", Answered Lilith out loud.

"Oh! There it is that voice again!" Said Vasilias

"Where did that come from?", Asked Xiao Long, "Where are you?"

"Lilith is a part of Arc, as he is a part of her.", Answered Schnee, "She is connected to him, near of his soul, to give him eternal company."

"Thanks for the explanation, Whitley Schnee.", Said Lilith politely, and Schnee nodded in response "I always try to give Arc the best advice, though we are still working with his insults."

"Pfft!", I scoffed, "What is an insult but just a truth translated in rough words?"

"A truth is already rough enough to hear, there's no need to offend people.", She argued.

"Like they don't get offended by everything these days...,"

"There are always like this?" Xiao Long asked to Schnee

"They like to talk and discuss, but never in an offensive manner. Arc is the beast, and Lilith the guidance"

"Like a dog and the owner?", Xiao long said scoffing.

"Well my mother was a bitch so yeah I'm probably a dog", I said nonchalantly

"Language.", scolded Lilith before sighing, "Anyways, be thankful that you are our ally, Xiao Long. Usually the people that helps us always survives to the adventure and is rewarded with good luck and riches for their future"

"Wait, did you say riches?!" Said Vasilias with- is that a dollar sign on his eyes?

"For the future.". She repeated, "is something that eventually will appear as-"

Then Vasilias knelt in front of me as he pressed his forehead in the floor

"Oh my lord, I promise you that, no matter what, I will follow you in this journey and I won't-"

"Stop that." I said annoyed "I wont hurt you as long as you dont behave as a cunt, so stand up before I -"

"Okay Okay I get up!" Neptune immediately stood up, terrified

"Sigh…" Xiao Long shook his head "Anyways, one thing that I didn't get yet is why you need me?"

"Ah, that, right" I stood up as walked towards the center of the room "When I entered to this world, I fought against a goddess of darkness, or at least, someone who wanted to be a goddess"

"Wait, Gods can kill other gods?" Asked Vasilias

I shrugged, "As long as I have the permission. Though it wouldn't be the first time hearing that topic. Chronos killing his father Uranus, Chronos eating his babies only for his son Zeus to cut his stomach to set free his brothers-"

"You are divagating again, Arc." Said Lilith.

"Oh, sorry." I chuckled "Anyways! The thing is."

Then I took out Salem's head from my coat by taking it by the hair, "This bitch!"

"What is that?!", Vasilias said shocked, "And how you could pack that thing inside your coat?!"

"Arc's coat doesn't have a bottom." Schnee answered.

"That is correct." nodded Lilith "Fun fact, inside the coat there's a small and empty universe where he can collect and gather all the things necessary for his joourny, though most things he gathers is just trash."

"It's my coat; I can gather whatever I fucking want!"

"Language!"

"Wait... I saw that face before.", Xiao Long said as he narrowed his eyes ,"Is that.. Salem?"

"Did you know her?", I asked.

"No. but the previous leader of my tribe, Raven, did." he asserted.

"What happened with her?" asked Schnee.

"She was killed, don't know when or how. She was the leader of the tribe where am I and that is now leaded by-"

"Vernal.", I said, "And I need her help."

"Why?", asked Xiao Long.

"She has a power to open the gate that will allow me to collect the Mistral Relic." Lilith said

"And you can't?" Asked Vasilias. "It would make sense that you would be able to open the ates too, since you have magic"

"Think about this, These gates are doors. To unlock these doors, you need 'special keys'"

"Okay?", Said Vasilias

"However, these gates can be opened with other type of methods, like if you used lock picks or a master key. But these kinds of methods are slow and need time and effort"

"And what's wrong with that?", asked Xiao Long

"As you could appreciate earlier, the invasion of Grimm that attacked the village wasn't an accident. It was an attack to me"

"So your saying someone ordered to a bunch of Grimm beasts to attack you?", asked Neptune, "is that even possible?"

"Salem could, but since shes dead"

"it means there's a new queen in town", I answered "Or can be a king but I'm sure it has to be a female, don't ask me why"

"So, what's the plan?", asked Schnee.

"I don't exactly make plans just keep near me and I will know what to do" I answered.

"For now, the best we can do is wait until we have more information about the new ruler", said Lilith, "As far as I know it's following Arc and me, so you don't have to be afraid, but it's obvious you can't leave until we find a secure place for you to stay"

"Do we have a real option at this point?" Xiao Long raised a brow "I'm not dumb. If you could kill Salem, then sure I will follow, as long as you don't hurt vernal."

"Thank you." I bowed my head in response.

The blonde man sighed, "Whatever, I think we should sleep a little before resuming our journey."

"Sounds good for me.", Schnee agreed.

"But wait, who would watch if Grimm enter to the house?" Said Vasilias.

"Remember, I don't sleep.", I said as I took out my rusty gun and the bronze book, "You can guys sleep, I will be here, reading this shit until I hear something."

"For me it's fine!" said Xiao Long before lying in the couch "I think I have enough for only one night."

"Don't remind me..." Said Vasilias in the other side of the couch as he rested his head on it

"Can't wait for another day full of fun!" said Schnee excited as he lied in the floor

"I don't want to know what kind of fun you're talking about" said Xiao Long

"Don't worry, you'll find it soon" He giggled mischievously

"Guys, you can let out your psychopath behaviors later. For now, you can rest" I told them.

"Since when I was the psychopath in this room?" Asked Xiao Long.

I only limited myself to raise an eyebrow at him.

"..Whatever" He grumbled before rolling on the couch as he showed his back to me "I just hope Bumblebee is okay outside.."

Bumblebee?

" _I think that's the name of his bike"_ Whispered Lilith in my ear

" _I see"_ I whispered back, then, in just a blink, Lilith was nowhere to be seen, with the exception of a new but familiar weight inside me.

" _What's the plan now_?" She asked inside my mind

I simply shrugged before taking the book that was the choice relic

" _I suppose I can read this for a while until the sun rises again."_ I replied

" _Sounds like a good plan for now_ " she softly sighed inside my mind _"I guess I can look for more data meanwhile… This world is getting more complicated little by little…"_

" _Meh, we passed through worse things_ " I shrugged _"Remember Helheim?"_

" _Or when we entered to the Malebolge for the first time?"_ She said

" _Or when we fought against the titans with Zeus?"_ I laughed.

"Or that time we had to fight the beasts from Chernobyl?"

" _And that time when we have to make a compromise to Freya to not kill her son Baldr?"_

" _What about that time we had to help Ra?"_

" _And lets not forget about those days in those never ending wars..."_

" _We went against a lot of things indeed."_ said Lilith softly " _Looks like this will be a new story to remember in our travels"_

 _We stayed in silence for a couple of minutes before I said_

" _How long until the rest notices we are just manipulating them?"_

" _Probably they wouldn't be even be alive to realize they were being used.", she replied_

" _I will hope the same Lilith"_ I smiled as I started to read the book that was in my hands:

" _Summer went to Signal academy. She, along with *****"_ Looks like we will only see Summer's name in this book _"learned the basic of how to be huntsman; they learned to fight, to make strategic plans, the anatomy of the different monsters that they have to fight in a future, and aura; one of the most important skills that a person needed if they wanted to become a real huntsman or huntress. Summer learned a lot, but it was just the beginning of her adventure. The destiny chose her, along with **** to enter to the prestigious Beacon academy, only made for the best of the best. Her future seemed to go on the right direction and she was very excited and happy that her dreams were slowly becoming true. When her parents noticed about the good news, they, despite of the worry and concern, let their daughter Summer to attend to Beacon, but not with a small gift that will always remind her of their family, even in the most dramatic and devastating moments of her life._

 _A white hood…"._

I keep reading without much interest while the rest of the group rested near the fire.

" _To say Summer was excited to enter to Beacon was an misunderstood. She craved for this day to become in a huntress in training. She, along with her best friend *******, a blonde boy with blue eyes that followed her in Signal, were more than ready to be in this academy that was directed by Headmaster *****. A mysterious man that, without knowing it, already had his sight in the girl, or at least, in her silver eyes."_

" _The first exam was simple, at least, for her and for those who were prepared; looking for a partner that will be with her for the next four years that she will stay in the academy, in the Emerald forest, and with just looking at the eyes of the person that will be her partner"_

" _In the exam, she was hopeful to find *******, but destiny once again prepared another gift for her."_

" _Instead of blue, she met red. And instead of blonde short hair, there was a long black hair."_

" _In front of her in the forest, she met-"_

…

And another censored name…

Sigh... I don't understand this book. It's only giving me more questions than actual answers.

It looks like its talking about a past, but what kind of past? Why is Summer important in this? Does she it have a connection with my main mission? Or…

Maybe Summer is the Wicked Rose? That was something that I was already thinking when I saw this book for the first time, but still I need more proofs, more story, more answers, for that conclusion. But this book is not giving me them…

I started to feel sleepy.

I turned my gaze around the place and saw that Xiao Long and Vasilias were already sleeping in the couch next to me. And Schnee was lying in the carpet next to the fire. And I couldn't feel nothing about Lilith inside me. She was in silence doing maybe who knows. Maybe she fell asleep or she's looking for more data in silence.

I sighed as I gathered the book in my coat and replaced it with a bottle of Ron. I took a sip and rested my head in the couch, looking at the white ceiling of the house.

White… that color has been in my mind since I entered to this world, maybe is because of the stupid question that Vasilias asked me before… it remind me of someone, but who?

Maybe an Angel?

…

No, theres no reason why an Angel would need me.

It was… someone else, I could feel a familiar essence, but from where? I don't know, but it looked important…

But who can be so much important to me? I asked to myself, and not receiving an answer, Why I have so many question but any answers?

I yawned, and before I knew it.

I closed my eyes…And I found myself this time in a new place.

I was in an unknown forest, with dead and dark trees surround me and a thick dark fog that covered the environment.

It was an obvious dream, like the last one; the same bloody clothes, and no weapons and powers either.

I don't know what kind of dream was it, but I think I can get used to it after a couple of times more.

My thoughts were interrupted when I heard the weak voice of a girl singing in the distance.

I turned my head in direction of the sound as I unconsciously I started to walk towards the forest

I walked through the forest despite of the dark fog blinding my path. It didn't matter though, what it mattered now was who was singing in that sad and broken voice. But her voice, sounded like a siren, but instead of trying to catch the attention of an unfortunate sailorman, it was like she wanted someone to listen to her, to save her.

Then, the fog vanished, and I saw her; a girl, standing a few meters in front of me. showing her bare back. She was wearing ragged clothes that showed her bare shoulders that were filled with deep purple wounds and marks of claws.

Her hair was white, but it looked dirty, messy and loss of all its pristine condition that once had.

The girl, not knowing about my presence, continued singing that sad, broken song of hers.

Accidentally, I stepped on a stick, and this made a loud sound. I cursed to myself as the girl who turned around to see who or what made that sound

I saw her face; a pale face with sky blue eyes and a scar in her left eye.

She was crying blood.

I had to admit the image startled me a bit.

At first, she looked confused, then she looked she was in shock, then, she brought a hand to her mouth while the other went to her chest.

"I-Is that y-you?", She asked with a broken and desperate voice but filled with a bit of hope.

I just stayed at her in silence, not knowing what to do next.

She started to slowly walk towards me with a shaky arm trying to reach me.

"A-After all these years, I-I can see you again.", she said between sobs, "I-I- I knew y-y-you would have s-saved m-"

Suddenly the ground started to quake with a force the earth shattered between the girl and me.

The force of the quake made me lost my balance as I put my hands on the ground

"No…. _**NO!**_ " the girl screamed as a hole started to appear behind her.

Then suddenly four dark limbs appeared from the hole

"Watch out!" I shouted at her. However it was too late.

The limbs grabbed her by the arms and legs like tentacles.

"Leave me... _**LEAVE ME!**_ " She yelled " _ **DON'T TAKE HIM AWAY FROM ME AGAIN!**_ _"_

My breath hitched at the sight of the girl fighting desperately against the limbs. I don't know what happened inside my mind, but I decided to run towards her.

That was, until my legs were suddenly caught. I fell to the ground and saw that my legs were caught by several hands that appeared from the shattered ground

Hands of condemned souls… Fuck, this is not good.

" _ **NO PLEASE! LET ME GO!"**_ She yelled " _ **SAVE ME PLEASE JAU-!**_ **"**

Suddenly her mouth was covered by a fifth limb, but it did nothing to cover her screams of desperation.

"Let me go pieces of shit!", I yelled as I kicked the hands who were trying to pull me. the hands recoiled in pain as I finally stood up.

Quickly, I ran to the girl that was struggling against the limbs to set her free.

I jumped and grabbed the limb that was suffocating her. But unfortunately I didn't catch the sixth limb that pushed me to the ground.

She screamed in fear as more dark limbs appeared and surrounded her, taking her to the bottom of the hole, disappearing from my sight in the instant.

"Fuck!", I cursed, looking at the immense and dark hole

No weapons, no powers, and any possibility of saving her.

"I can't do anything", I muttered. However, a deep part inside me was telling me something

" _Do it…"_

I sighed heavily, and before I could stop myself _,_ jumped, and closed my eyes.

Instead of a fall, I found myself lying in the floor of a house while a loud and painful beep sounded inside my brain.

"Arc.." I could feel the voice of someone calling me, but the headache was so strong it was like it was distant.

"Arc.." the voice called again but only made my head to hurt even more.

I growled as I stood up and went immediately towards the kitchen where I took out the cups from before.

I went to the dishwasher and turned on the griffon, and then with fresh water I began to refresh my face. But it wasn't enough; the headache didn't seem to leave as I buried my face in my wet hands and slowly sitting in the floor.

"Arc.." that was the voice again, can you shut the fuck u- "ARC!"

I recognized the voice "Lilith... My head again…" I said slowly and hurtfully.

Then, I felt how two new hands touched my face and took away my hands from my face. The hands carefully cupped my cheeks as I stared at the spirit with a red veil in her face. Then, the hands emanated a strange light of red and white, and just a few, the beep and the headache were eliminated.

"Breathe." Lilith said softly at me and I complied "How do you feel now?"

"Better." I whispered to her "I had another dream…"

"The wicked Rose?" she asked

"No... This time was different. It was a girl with white hair."

"White hair…" she slowly repeated "Tell me more."

"I was in a forest, and then I saw this girl singing. She looked she recognized me, and she said some things.. I don't know, It was weird… she was like-"

"A Snow Angel?"

…

"…What?"

"…What?", She replied, sounding confused.

"What did you just say?"

"I said nothing."

"I heard you Lilith, you just said Snow Angel."

"…Did I?"

"Lilith, are you okay?"

"…I don't know. Looks like I'm having the same trouble as you or maybe you heard wrong because as long as I remember I said nothing."

I loudly growled, "This world… I don't like it, it's like it's messing with my head, waiting to explode like a bomb."

"It's the first time since a time ago watching you having problems like this.", Lilith sighed, "I'm so sorry Arc for not being there before. Those dreams that you had act like they disconnect you from me and I don't know what happens until you wake up. I hope you can forgive me."

"You don't have to apologize Lilith, you never had to.", I smiled, "But next time, I think I will keep myself awake"

" I understood." she replied as I stood up.

The magic that she used had an effective result. I took a deep breath as I stretched my arms, then I exhaled heavily after that.

I felt thirsty, so looked through my coat to find if there was still something that I could drink.

I found a bottle of Tequila. I opened it and then I took the largest sip I could drink.

Yep, I went back to normal. Kinda…

"I didn't know I could still experiment hangovers." I joked after taking the bottle out of my mouth

"It's that the first thing you think?" Replied Lilith

"You know I like to joke about everything", I smiled at her, "Also, I want to smoke."

Then in that moment someone threw me a pack of cigarettes to my chest. I quickly grabbed it as I turned my head in direction of the subject.

It was Schnee, who bowed his head in the presence of Lilith.

"Something's wrong?", he asked me, "I saw you in the floor the wine was all spilled in the carpet."

"Oh, I did quite a mess there, isn't it?", I chuckled as I took one of the cigarettes, there were 12 in total, "Nothing important, just a bad dream, maybe an illusion or a premonition. Whatever, nothing confirmed yet.", I shrugged my shoulders as I snapped my fingers. Then a small light was in them. With that I lighted the cigar and put it in my mouth.

I deeply inhaled and retained the dark smoke inside me for some seconds until I exhaled again, blowing the dark fog from my lungs

After a moment in silence, Schnee spoke again;

"We should leave soon."

"What's the matter?" I asked before putting the cigar in my mouth again.

"The army of Atlas can come in any second to this place, they are aware of what happened. Besides, I can't let them know that I desert or they will hunt me like one of those poor bastards from the Amitola's excavation mines that try to escape."

"That bad, huh?" I noted as I exhaled more dark smoke from my mouth.

"How much time we have?" Asked Lilith.

"Couple of hours, maybe" He said unsure "What matters now here is that we need to leave as soon as possible."

"We need to wake up the others, what time is it?", I asked.

"6:05 A.M.", Replied Schnee.

Oh, so that means I slept for one and two hours. Not bad, actually.

In that moment, I could hear the steps of someone approaching at us. Lilith was nowhere to be seen this time.

Then, I saw Li Ren in front of me with an improvised cast, probably made with the sheets of a bed.

" Li Ren?", I asked a little surprised; I thought he would be sleeping all night and day long

"Looks like you are still here.", He softly noted with a smile.

"Actually, we were leaving now", Said Schnee

"I see...", He nodded.

"..Do you need something?", I asked after a moment.

"I would like a cup of water, if you can", He said

I nodded before turning to Schnee.

"Go and wake up the others. I want to talk with him in private.", I told him, and he nodded before walking away.

I left the cigar near the dishwasher and took a crystal cup and filled with fresh water.

I gave it to Li Ren who smiled at me.

"Thank you, young man."

"It's nothing.", I replied. Seconds later I spoke again, "I want to ask you some questions, if you don't mind."

"Go ahead."

"What you were doing when we found you against that beast?"

"Well…", He sighed, "When I saw the Grimm, and everyone running for their lives, I tried to stop the beast so everyone else could have enough time to escape."

"So you wanted to play hero huh?"

He glared at me, "Playing hero is not the reason why I attacked the beast, I did it because there were old men and families with kids in danger."

"And you were sacrificing your life for those who wouldn't even remember your name?"

"I lived here since I was born; I saw how this place becomes from just a few houses made of wood, including mine, to a large village where men and women live in harmony.I couldn't just run and leave those families by their luck. I wouldn't have forgiven myself"

"You have a point", I admitted, "But your decision could have been a bit more intelligent in my opinion"

"Tell me, if you had been in a situation like mine, what would you do?"

Well, that's a bit difficult question, I thought, I would have probably laughed instead of helping, but I can't tell him something like that…

He thought my silence was enough of an answer, "You know, my father always told me that there are moments in your life where you have to decide between doing nothing, and save your life, or making a decision that will mark you for the rest of your life"

"Even if that decision killed you?"

He stayed in silence for a moment before he smiled at me

"Well, If I had died, something that didn't happen, but saved all my village, it would be the best decision I could possibly made"

"Sounds like an honest reply", I chuckled as I stared at his eyes, "You must be a very brave person"

"Don't confuse my actions, young man. I'm just a hunter that has been living in this place since my birth. I won't let a small horde of Grimm destroy my home and let alone attack such good people that deserves to live in peace"

I nodded in silence as I consumed his words, "Say, Can you tell me something interesting Mistral?"

"Mistral is a good place to live, I assure you, but there had been some episodes with the Atlas Army and the White Fang. I'm not a great fan of talking about that topic."

"I want to hear it." I insisted.

"Well, I'm not going to lie to you, only because you saved my life. You must have seen the news, right?"

"Actually, not so much."

"Well, I don't know much about the subject, but the thing is that Atlas and Menagerie are in some kind of confrontation here in Mistral, like they want to control the suzerainty of the nation. Everything's weird, I saw groups of soldiers and robots walking through the streets, news about faunus that explode themselves in the name of the white fang, and drones flying in the sky like they are watching us. I don't know much about the topic but it scares me a lot."

"I see. Do you know about something about the Atlas kingdom?" I asked

"Atlas doesn't like to publish anything outside of the kingdom. They have their own news, newspaper, everything. They have even censored several books and burned them. They are very discreet"

Well that's shit, it doesn't help me very much, but at least I know Atlas is another version of England from 1984… well that would be an exaggeration, now that I think about it.

"And the White Fang?" I asked

"Only one thing; they are dangerous. Don't try to approach to one of them or you will have a very bad time, young man. They were once a good group a long time ago. But everything changed when that Sienna khan took the lead with Ghira. I'm not sure, but she gives me a bad spine"

"Well, better than nothing" I whispered before putting the cigar in my mouth again and starting smoking

"May I ask you to not smoke inside of my house?" He asked. He is one of those, however he is right, it's his house after all.

"Sure" I replied. Then I dropped the cigar and stepped on it on the floor. "I shall be going now; I still need to do my mission."

I was walking away when I heard him ask behind me "Mission? What mission?"

I just stopped, and without bothering to look at him, I replied

"It's… a private mission, you wouldn't understand, sorry." I frankly answered "Goodbye Li Ren, and take care of those beasts out there. Probably a patrol is coming soon so you should see if they knock the door"

"Thanks for the information, but I know how to take care of myself" He answered

"You sure do" I said "Oh, by the way, do you have by any chance some kind of carriage in this house? Xiao Long has a bike somewhere, and I think something like a chariot or a wooden carriage would be of great help in our travel

"I think… There was one near here when we were walking to the house earlier, I believe it belonged to one of my neighbors and it's a bit old but I think it will work if you fix it first, and then you can connect it with the bike with a chain"

"Thanks for the info. Goodbye, Li Ren"

"Good luck in your next adventure, young man"

When I entered, I saw Xiao Long stretching his arms and yawning in front of the weak fire and Vasilias still in the couch rubbing his eyes and groaning, and next to him was Schnee inspecting a sniper rifle that looked like a Gauss rifle but in white color

"So, No breakfast today?" joked Xiao Long

"Do you have something in mind for a breakfast?" I asked

"Sigh... looks like we have to wait until we arrived to the tribe" Schnee replied

"Why we have to wake up so early?" Groaned Vasilias

"Time's gold Vasilias" I replied tiredly before turning to Xiao Long "C'mon Xiao long, you still need to look for your bike"

"Roger that, Sir!" He said sarcastically.

"Schnee, Vasilias, follow him, I will find a carriage to connect it to the bike so we can go in the same transport"

"See you in the entrance of the village, we will be waiting, my lord", Schnee said, and with that, they walked away from the room.

Soon, I left the house too, in searching of said carriage that Ren talked about. The day was pretty warm and the sun was starting to show some rays and illuminating the place but it was still very cloudy in the sky.

The streets were wet and soiled with mud. It could have been a very pacific view if a horde of beasts didn't destroy the zone just yesterday.

After a while, I was holding the rusty metal chains of an old wooden carriage that had some rotten and destroyed tables when I found it. But thanks to my powers I left it in a decent state.

"Lilith", I called her.

"Yes, Arc?"

"Did you find something new last night?"

"Well, I found something about our little problem with the omniscience…"

"Yeah? What is it?"

"We know it has to be related with the Wicked Rose"" She answered "But it looks like she doesn't act directly on that. It's like her own presence makes interferences in it"

"That's bad. Something else?"

"Looks like she was the cause of the horde attacking the village. Looks like she can control Grimm like our old objective, Salem"

"How do you know?"

"The black aura that the Grimm possessed was surrounded by a silver lining. It was obvious they were thinking straight at the moment and their instincts were manipulated to attack the zone"

"Grimm… I still don't fully understand what kind of beasts are they"

"Beasts made of darkness that feed on the fear and negative thoughts of Humankind and Faunus race" Answered Lilith "However, the power of the new ruler doesn't make them to follow orders like our old objective"

"What you mean?"

"She's controlling them by an unconventional form, like manipulating their desires and fears instead of their minds"

"Do they have desires or fears?"

"Like any animal, their actions are followed by their own instinct. If a horde of Grimm was manipulated to attack the village, it's very possible that the reason behind was because their inner instincts were controlled to attack the village in search of food, despite the village didn't present a high level of negativity last night"

"That crazy bitch." I cursed, "I bet she was who put that weird ream inside me head too"

"Unfortunately I still can't confirm if she was the cause of your dream of earlier and your recent headaches."

"If she wasn't then I don't know who could do that" I said intrigued. The dream was still vividly in my head, refusing to disappear and being forgotten

Why is that girl important? Why I followed her to the abyss? I didn't ever know her in first place to do such dangerous thing as jumping to a black hole, it was like my own soul told me to move instead of any kind of logic or reason

Then, I felt steps. I turned my gaze to a side and saw the three guys walking along, with Xiao Long moving a yellow and black motorbike

"Good news! Bumblebee didn't receive any scratch during the attack and still has the tank of gas full!" cheered the blonde

"I would cheer for that but I hate parties" I growled

"That's what we will use as transport?" asked Neptune with his weapon on his back.

"You have another idea?", I asked, annoyed

"I don't know, will it resist?", Schnee asked.

"I don't know if we cant put that behinds my bike", questioned Xiao Long

"Can we go now? I'm hungry!" Growled Vasilias like a baby

I made a raspberry in response as I put the chains in the bottom of Xiao Long's bike, making a tight knot on it

"I suppose that will work for now" I said

"Better than nothing I guess

" Shrugged Xiao long before sitting in the bike

"Wait a minute…" I turned to Vasilias who had a intrigued expression "Arc, didn't you have a portal power"

"No." I replied immediately

"Then-"

"That's my power, Vasilias" Lilith replied

"Then why not use it to teleport us to the tribe", He asked

"I would, but unfortunately there are two troubles; my portals can be used only with Arc and I, plus one person, and that I couldn't find the location of the tribe"

"Are you having problems with your powers?" Asked Schnee

"Only a slight interference" Replied Lilith

"Hey, we are losing time here!" Yelled Xiao Long on his bike "I want to eat some meat for breakfast before everyone else takes it!"

"You eat meat as breakfast?" I asked as I entered to the carriage

"Only the best deer meat that you could find in Anima" he said with a smile "Now let's go before I drool in my girl!"

Now he's referring his bike as a girl? Pft, Humans…was I really one of them before?

"I'm coming" Said tiredly Vasilias while Schnee followed him behind. Once the two entered in the carriage, Xiao Long turned on his bike and then we sailed to another place out of the village that surprisingly had some houses in feet, one of them, belonging to Li Ren.

Whatever that happens to that guy… sigh… I hope he goes to heaven…

Or that at least, Minos doesn't give him a rough judgment. Usually those with good souls but that never were baptized go to limbo…

Meanwhile in another place out of there. In another continent, there was a mature woman in the office that before belonged to an old headmaster, and that was suffering a dilemma.

Yesterday in the night, she received a call, of an old friend, trying to make a deal with her.

He'd would help her with the academy in an attempt to regain the old prestige that once had, aside from more security and more budget for the academy. But with a price. A price that she was hesitant to pay.

She stood in the window looking at the campus with a melancholic expression, when a voice in the air caught her attention

" _ **I think you should do it"**_

Glynda abruptly turned her head to the empty office "What?" she whispered

" _ **He is giving you a great deal. It would be selfish of you to not take it"**_ The voice spoke again, near Glynda's ear.

The headmistress quickly stepped back as she pointed with her weapon in direction she heard the voice "Who's talking?" she spoke in a calmly yet defiant voice

" _ **Would you believe if I say I'm your consciousness?"**_ the voice devilishly giggled

"Not in a million of years" Glynda said angrily

" _ **That's very disappointing to hear**_. _**Because I have a very good advice for you"**_ she replied in a soft tone _**"I think you should accept Ironwood's offer!"**_

"What do you know about his offer?" Glynda asked bitterly, "What do you even know about that fascist of Atlas?"

" _ **I heard, and saw everything, Glynda. And honestly, it seems like a good offer that everyone will win, you just have to-"**_

"I won't do that!" Glynda yelled "I won't do that to my students, nor now, nor never!"

" _ **Glynda, Glynda, Glynda"**_ The voice said in a disapproving _**tone "that blonde man, Arc, is just a man, maybe a little dangerous, but what is a man against hundreds of huntsmen and huntresses? The only one that will lose will be him"**_

"I won't let my students hunt a psychopath", she growled

" _ **Just think about it. The greatest Beacon academy will regain its past prestige. Students and teachers will have more resources. And the word Hunstman will regain the gold prestige that it once had. Just a little reward, a little hunt, and boom! Everything will finish before you know when it began"**_

"I…"

" _ **Just click the button that is in your computer, and everything will come back to normal. That wasn't what you want? A world of heroes traveling around the world defending the peace! Defending the innocents and becoming legends! This is your chance to make it real!"**_

Glynda remained silent as she turned her gaze to the monitor

On it there was a sentence

"ARC; Grimm of maximum level that can change of form" below the sentence there was the photo of an old and archaic draw of a blonde man with black coats with darkness surrounding him and a feminine figure of red, white and black touching his shoulders, floating above him. They were separated, but at the same time, they looked very close, like the same spirit.

And below the image, there was a number

of Lien

Wanted: DEAD

" _ **Who could have guessed that a price like that for a head could be possible in this world"**_ Chuckled the voice _**"People would be too dumb to not give an attempt to hunt and kill him. With that money, a lot of generations can have an entire life without problems. Think about it, Glynda, that money can be used very well in the good hands. if that amount of money goes to Beacon, a lot of future generations of children and future huntsmen will have a brilliant future!"**_

The headmistress, without knowing it, started to slowly walk to the monitor and grabbed the mouse

" _ **It's an offer that anyone can refuse, just think about, millions of heroes, billions of lives saved, just with the death of just one person..."**_

Glynda moved her finger in the direction of a button that said CONFIRM

" **Do it, Glynda, and the madness will cease at last"**

"I... I can't do that" Glynda said in a dead voice, like if she was possessed, "I can't do that to my students. Arc is dangerous man, he has teleporting powers and he is a murderer, if my students get injured because of him, I-"

" _ **But if they catch him, if the can give him an end, then what? They will become in heroes, in legends. Maybe they are still in training, but this is their opportunity to become in saviors. "**_ The voicesaid in a persuading tone when Glynda's hand moved the mouse once again, **"Give them the opportunity to show their abilities to the world, and and make Beacon great once again"**

Then, Glynda clicked the button, and the illustration disappeared from the map. Meaning one thing; that the illustration and the new data was in the system, and that in just a few minutes, will appear in all the scrolls of all the huntsman and huntresses of all Remmant.

Glynda shook her head and gasped when she noticed what she had done.

"No…" she pressed a hand on her mouth in fear and shock

Then, she felt like how two hands was caressing her shoulders, sending goosebumps to the blonde teacher through her body.

" _ **Don't worry Glynda"**_ Cooed the voice _**"some sacrifices must need to be done, but don't worry, once this finishes, it will become in a sweet memory of the past"**_

And with that, the voice disappeared, leaving the headmistress alone in her own grief

"Hey Arc, can I ask you something?"

We were traveling along some forests that had leafs of orange color. We should be in the fall season, maybe in October? And the feeling that I'm forgetting something didn't leave me relax in peace. But that didn't matter as I heard the soft voice of Vasilias talking to me

"What?" I asked. Vasilias was in front of me, seated in the wooden floor of the carriage while Schnee was next to him recharging his gun.

"Why are you covering your eye?" He pointed to the eye that was covered by my hair

"Oh that?" I chuckled "It's because my eye is charged with a powerful power that must be protected against the solar and lunar light or it could cause the destruction of the world and the universe!" I answered with a bright smile on my face.

Vasilias' eyes were open wide in shock "Really?"

I frowned "Of course not, shithead" I lifted my hair to show another lifeless eye of blue color "It's just another normal eye, what do you think I am? An anime character?"

Schnee began to chuckle with a robotic sound while Vasilias glared at me.

"Very funny Arc, considering the amount of things you did last night, it wouldn't be a surprise your eyes are magical too"

"Eh perhaps, But I hate lasers and all that stuff" I said shrugging with a smile

"I thought gods were more serious than this" Said Xiao Long who was driving on his bike

"I'm serious when the situation needs it." I replied " if you think all gods acts all serious, that's because you don't know how gods are at all."

"Oh yeah? Well educate me then mister Arc" He said sarcastically, "How does a god act?"

"Depends of the god were talking about!", I said standing up, like the wind isn't affecting my balance, "If we want to talk about serious gods, there's Shiva, Poseidon, Apollo or Set.", I said chuckling as I walked through the metal chain between the carriage and the bike, like if I was just a feather on top of a rope, "And there's gods like Loki, Hermes,or Lucifer but he does it only to persuade you to do bad shit, and well-"

Suddenly the bike stopped, making me lose a bit of balance.

"Thanks for the mythology class but I think that's enough names for now" Xiao long growled "Let's go guys, we arrived."

And then, a few meters in front of us, there was a basement surrounded by large wooden walls and protected by several men with weapons on their hands.

'Well', I said to myself as I left the carriage and crunched my knuckles

'Time for a meeting with a Maiden.'

If I had to say something about my reception in the tribe of this Vernal girl, is that they didn't received me with the open arms.

While I was walking through their basement (Behind Xiao Long, while Schnee and Vasilias were behind me) I could hear whispers and murmurs of the bandits.

"Is that the man that killed Torchwick? Doesn't seem very impressive."

"He looks like a huntsman student with emo clothes in my opinion."

"I heard he killed that headmaster of Beacon, Ozpin."

"I heard he fought against a big Grimm beast at the northeast of here"

"Who are the other two? Slaves?"

"Maybe gifts for us in exchange." Someone said with laughs at the end, "I wanted more punch bags to practice!"

While I, Schnee and Xiao Long remained calmed, I couldn't help but feel the fear that was invading Vasilias body.

Poor guy, it was obvious that it wasn't a man that should be here. But once again, he doesn't have a choice.

"Where's Vernal?" I asked to Xiao Long.

"Wait a second." He said briefly as we walked towards a red big tent that was guarded by two muscular bandits with spears on their arms.

"What do you need, Tai?" asked one of them.

"I need to talk with the leader."

"Vernal is not available in this moment" said the other man

"Please, this... man wants to talk with her." Xiao Long said as he gestured towards me.

"I'm sorry, Vernal said exclusively that-"

"What's the matter here?" Said a feminine voice that spoke behind the tent.

Then, a feminine form with short black hair with blue eyes appeared in front of us.

"V-Vernal. These men wanted to talk with you but we-" one of the guard began to talk but was quickly shut by her who made a gesture with her hand as she approached at us.

She seemed very confident and skillfully, perfect for my mission.

The woman approached at Xiao Long. She seemed to be a little upset

"What happened now, Taiyang?"

Xiao Long gestured towards me, and she approached at me with intrigue on her face

"… You are the man who killed Ozpin." She noted

"No. Ozpin was cursed, the only thing I did was killing the thing that cursed him." I said

"How did you exactly get in here?" she asked, "If you came to trade I will have to deny it"

"I need to talk about something with you. In private would be better."

"And for what reason?"

"It's something that I'm sure it will be interesting for you, but I can only show it to you, no one else"

Vernal turned to Xiao Long with a suspicious look on her face

"I know he looks like an edgy guy, but hes not lying"; I rolled my eyes at Xiao Longs comment.

"… Alright, you can enter, but the others must wait here" she gestured to the guys that were behind me.

"For me it's fine" Said Schnee in a robotic voice. Vasilias only nodded in response. And Xiao long stood there without saying anything.

Vernal gestured to me to follow her as she turned around towards the tent. I complied as I passed by the guards and entered the tent behind her.

Inside, I found myself in a little operation headquarter, with a map of the world with some cities crossed out in red color and a little tea table.

"Sit there" she pointed to a red pillow that was near the table.

I complied. Meanwhile she sat across the table and began to fill a cup with green tea.

I looked around and noticed that there were a interesting amount of things that were probably stolen and collected like a dragon's hoard; golden amulets, little sculptures, artistic pieces, and more of those dust vials.

She gave me the cup of green tea and I simply bowed my head as a thanks.

…I think I'm staring too much to this cup of tea. Why I have the hunch that I- Stop.

Sigh… I should stop thinking about these things, and what if I met someone that probably liked to drink green tea? That doesn't mean anything for me and for anyone.

I decided to take a long sip and forget why my mind is having these strange Deja vus.

"Let's do this quickly." She said "What do you want?"

I let out a sigh as I let the silence to fill the place, then I spoke, "I know what you are."

She raised a brow in response, like if she was almost impressed. I felt how she gripped something under the table with force.

"I'm going to be brief, I know you are a maiden. But I didn't come to hurt you or your tribe, so you don't have to use that dagger of yours that's hidden under the table."

There was a brief silence after that. The woman sighed before she put the silver dagger on the table

"A very attentive man, aren't you?" she said, "If your words are true, then explain me what do you want from me?"

" I need your help."

"Why would you need the help of a maiden in first place?"

"Someone is following me, and I don't know who it can be, but I don't like what is trying to plan. You see, I'm a mission; I'm collecting four relics…"

"Relics? From the Hunstmen academies?"

"Do you know about them?" I asked her.

"The old leader, Raven, knew about the existence of these relics, and she told me about something before she died" She said "After that, I received the power of the Spring Maiden."

"Then you must know who Salem was." I said as I got up

"Raven never told me much about he-" she stopped the sentence when she saw what I just took out from my coat.

"I killed her when I got here." I grabbed Salem's head by her long white hair and showed it to her. "Killing her was the easy part, but now, I have something more difficult on my hands."

".. It can't be real" She said firmly as she stared at the head

"She was. But immortality was never something that could stop me to kill someone" I sighed "Salem was cursed a long time ago by the Grimm Brothers, but she was causing a lot of trouble, it was obvious she will never learn the lesson from the grimm brothers. My mission was to eliminate her and find the relics before someone more dangerous than Salem could use them for a greedy way that could affect this world on a negative way or something worse.."

"Like?"

I simply shrugged "Destroy the planet, maybe even the universe. there are millions of possibilities" I said as I gathered Salem's head inside my coat again.

There was another silence again.

"…So you want my help for…"

"To open the gate of Haven Academy to collect the Mistral Relic" I said

"you want me to raid a huntsmen academy?" She asked incredulously

"It should be something very quick to do; it would be go to the haven academy and open the gate; I brought someone with me that is a student from there that can guide us to the academy."

She sighed, "And so what, do you really want my people to rush an academy full of teenagers? Is that really your plan?"

"I never said I needed your men!", I said with joy in my voice, "I just need you, actually"

"...What?"

"I. Need. You. Only. To. Open. The. Gate", I said slowly. "Can understand me now?"

"...sigh", she closed her eyes as she shook her eyes, "Look I have no time for this I-"

"Wait", before she could stand up I put a hand on one of hers, "What do I need to convince to help me? Money? Kill an enemy tribe? I'll do anything if you accompany me to the academy, even if it's just for five minutes"

She stared at me for a couple of seconds before she pushed my hand off, "You sound very desperate. Fine, Do you want my help? first, you have to earn it", she stood up and walked to the other part of the tent, "If you want a help of a maiden, first you have to show if you're truly valuable"

"What you mean with valuable", I said with a little smirk as I got up on my feet, "I show you salem's head, isn't that enough value?"

"Not much if I didn't see how you killed her", she replied as she moved the red curtain of the tent, showing an empty field at the other side, "If you were truly capable of defeating Salem, then you wouldn't mind showing your abilities so you can show you are trustable, right?"

I have to admit it, she had a point. Tribes like this always ask for something in exchange.

"What you do want?" I asked her.

"You know, there's something that you said earlier that interested me", she said as she stood up, "Since our previous leader, Raven Brawnen, has died recently by unknown circumstances, probably by the same magic that she possessed before she passed it to me, there has been a group of bandits that have been interested in claim what's our territory. they're not afraid of me and think me and my men are not strong enough to be here." she said walking in circles in front of me. "So, if you want us our help, first you have to earn not only our trust, but also our respect"

"Tell me what to do"

"I want to kill their leader. and I want you to bring his head to me and my people"

"Who is this person?"

"His name is Brown Phoenix, Lader of the Phoenix agroupattion, he had been"

"Alright I think I got it", I got up and prepared to get away when she interrupted me

"Wait where are you going so soon? I haven't even tell you-"

"Where is he?" I smiled, "Don't worry Lilith can take care of it, I will be back in, I dont know two hours maybe?"

" _Probably"_ , Lilith answered.

"Wait. at least let me-"

"I can walk, I don't need transports", I told her calmly, "I will just ask for something"

"what is it?"

"When I go back, I want that guitar as my reward" I said, pointing at the guitar.

"...that old, broken guitar? why?"

"I have my preferences", I chuckled as I turned around and opened the red curtain, but before I could leave I heard the maiden stopping me

"wait!"

I stopped and gazed at her; she was furrowing her eyebrows at me, confused and a bit upset.

"Yes?"

"you, are a very strange man"

I simply smiled

"You don't know anything about me, Ms. Vernal"

And I left, smiling to myself as I cracked my knuckles

"Are you ready Lilith"

"Ready, as we always do", she answered

a shiver of excitement coursed through my spine as I smiled wider

" **It's killing time"**

 **Well, that was something else**

 **fun fact, this chapter was actually three chapters, but I decided to make just one because I didn't want to make the story too long or with too many hangcliffers**

 **I've been preparing this chapter for a time, but I never felt confident enough to publish it. I know my English can be wrong sometimes, but I swore I got better after two years of writing and listening in English**

I really, really, want to make more chapters of this story, I really love this thing and I can't wait to come to the good parts

Also I was thinking about explaining more about Jaunes powers, how he obtained them and how they work. I think it would be great cause I love hack n slash games and reading the description of abilities and stuff you find.

As far as I show in the story, we have

 **Teleportation**

 **Bending Time**

 **Fixing power** (Only functional for non alive stuff)

 **Earth bending** (Spikes and walls)

 **Smoke** (Changing particles of the body)

 **Phobos and Deimos** (This is more like a symbiotic relationship more than anything)

 **Fire Control**

and of course, **Darkness.** but it's something I will talk about in the story in the future

 **I would try to make descriptions, but in the next chapters since I want to upload this chapter today and not in the next month lmao**

 **I hope you guys like the chapter, and see you hopefully soon**


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